


You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 2

by Firewhisperer13



Series: The Umbrella Academy Series [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: 1960s, Action, F/F, Gen, LGBTQ Themes, Platonic Relationships, Science Fiction, Season/Series 02, Series, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 39
Words: 96,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26011306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firewhisperer13/pseuds/Firewhisperer13
Summary: Trapped and scattered across Dallas in the early 60s, the Hargreeves siblings have to gather up and prepare themselves to stop yet another doomsday scenario. But being stuck in a time they don't belong in proves to present more problems than previously assumed, and they may find ripple effects are easier to create than they are to fix. All Rights Reserved, Netflix, 2019-present
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Lila Pitts/Original Hargreeves Character, Luther Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy), The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy) & Original Hargreeves Character(s), The Hargreeves Family, Vanya Hargreeves & The Hargreeves
Series: The Umbrella Academy Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1636681
Comments: 7
Kudos: 19





	1. The Swingin' 60s

**Author's Note:**

> Volume 2: Nukes and Bullets in the Wrong Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haven't read Volume 1 yet? Here's the link!  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/22764625/chapters/54397348

_On April the 1 st, 2019, the Earth was destroyed in a cataclysmic event. Billions of people were wiped out in a matter of minutes. Ironically, the seven survivors of the apocalypse were the very siblings that brought it on—narrowly escaping death by traveling back to their childhood to help their sister._

_Or, at least, that was the intention._

**Dallas, Texas**

**November 15, 1963**

My eyes moved slowly over the scene in front of me, carefully analyzing each minor step, slide, and flick of the hands. The carefully selected line of performers before me stopped and started with razor-like precision, their carefully executed falls to the floor barely audible. To the best of my ability, I fought down the urge to take a place in front of the rest of the dancers and start doing the moves with them. At this point, if they didn’t know it, it was unlikely they’d be able to get it down. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be much of an issue here, but I managed to catch a few wandering eyes as certain dancers’ momentum died out slightly. Still, they managed to get through without a glaring incident, and even remained in their ending poses until I made my way over to the record player and carefully moved the needle away from the vinyl, allowing for my voice to be heard clearly.

“All right.” I turned to face the group of adults with an enthusiastic smile. “You guys are doing great. Whether you realize it or not, you know this choreography. That means, don’t go looking to your neighbor or the person in front of you for help.” A few of the dancers chuckled or looked down to their feet, embarrassed. “Besides, if the person you’re looking at messes up, then you’ll mess up, and the next thing you know, we’ve got chaos. Don’t be the cause of the ripple effect, okay?” Nods and confident exclamations of agreement put my mind enough at ease. “Good. Now, it’s getting late, it’s a Friday, and I don’t know about you all, but I’m ready to start my weekend. I’ll see you all Monday.”

I made sure to pack up slowly so I could be the last one out, just to make sure no one tried to linger after hours. Once everyone had filed out the front doors, I offered our receptionist, Jill, a wave, then headed to my car and threw my bag in the back. I had a little while before I had to reach my next destination, which definitely was for the better. The sweater I’d thrown on over my leotard was dotted with dark stains of sweat, and I smelled like I’d been working in a barn for 24 hours straight. Somehow, it wasn’t much different from being on the other side of the choreography.

It still felt sort of foreign to me, being the one to give the orders rather than take them. In 2019, I’d never been given the chance to show what I’d learned over the years, but here, they hired me as a teacher and choreographer almost immediately. It’s probably because of that experience that I tried not to make myself the only voice in my classes. If another dancer had an idea they stood by firmly, I took it under consideration. Quite a few of them definitely had potential, and I hoped they’d maybe chase after it one day.

The sun was beginning to paint the sky with soft pinks and royal purples as I pulled into my driveway and made my way into my house. The few lamps I kept on when I left burned on strong, and the answering machine wasn’t blinking, meaning that was one less thing I had to worry about. Eagerly, I bounded up the stairs, opting to take a quick shower before trying to throw together something to wear.

As I started to throw on my new set of clothes, I caught myself staring intensely at my proportions, grimacing and picking at what had grown recently. But, just as quickly as it came on, I shooed the thoughts away, reminding myself this was better for me; I was healthy, and ultimately, that mattered a hell of a lot more to me than fitting something that wasn’t even relevant for the time and position I was in. Though the thoughts and criticisms had been burned into my brain for so many years, it got easier to throw them out every day.

My eyes flickered to the clock mounted on my wall, and upon spotting the time, I whipped around quickly and started to dig through for a pair of shoes. Various flats, boots, and heels went flying carelessly, until I spotted a shimmer of scratched, worn-out red buried among the blacks and browns. I had to lean in a little further, but I managed to grab onto and pull out the pair of bowling shoes I couldn’t bear to get rid of. God knows how many pairs of feet wore these things before I accidentally stole them, and they smelled like death decided to have trash for dinner, but I never even thought twice about keeping them.

Unconsciously, I felt my hand drift up to the small, silver pendant resting against my sternum, tracing the pattern as though it would somehow cause at least one of them to appear in the doorway.

For a while, when I first arrived in Dallas, I tried my best to track down any of my brothers or sisters, hoping that I could at least get some sort of lead, but all the roads just dropped off cliffs at a certain point. There was no guarantee we’d even landed in the same centuries, but I kept hoping. They _had_ to be out there somewhere.

Right now, I didn’t have time to mope and wallow about it. I had a friend waiting for me, and if I dallied for another minute, I’d be late and she’d tease me about it, so I set the bowling shoes back in their place and slipped on a pair of flats as I hopped closer to the staircase, and once both shoes were on, I made my way back out to my car and headed out toward the address.

It wasn’t until I’d parked and stood in front of the door to the establishment that my stomach started to twist and turn. The fact I even had to consider going here dangerous was completely ridiculous, but this was a different time from what I’d gotten used to. I’d heard the stories about other bars in towns being infiltrated, and people were arrested in droves. Worse, their names would be printed in the paper after they were jailed, shaming them just because of who they loved.

However, it was a little late to turn back at this point. I’d already promised to meet someone here, and the majority of me was excited to try something new. Besides, I didn’t have to meet someone if I didn’t want to. It would just be nice to be surrounded by other women who understood what it was like to be oppressed just because of their sexuality.

With a final deep breath, I pushed open the door.


	2. Dancing, Drinks, and Brothers

A few cautious eyes watched as I opened the door and took timid steps in, but I tried my best to just keep my head level and pick out my friend in the crowd. After all, they were just trying to make sure they were safe. It wasn’t any sort of passing judgement on me, not that I’d expect it in the first place.

The waving of a porcelain hand caught my attention, drawing my attention to a table right nearby, right against a window. I apologetically navigated through dancing and conversing patrons, pushing through to the bar to order a drink before I strolled up to the table in question and took a seat across from the bubbly blonde.

“Hey, Kate,” I greeted. She sat up a little straighter and brushed her hands over her clothes, furiously scanning them for any sign of a wrinkle. “You look fine.” My voice seemed to snap her out of her trance.

“Are you sure? I feel like—"

“Trust me, Kate,” I interjected. “You look great, as always.” Reassured, her expression softened and her shoulders relaxed about as much as they could for her.

“How’s the studio holdin’ up?” she inquired.

“Oh, it’s practically falling apart without you,” I joked, causing her to roll her eyes and laugh. “No, it’s doing really well. All my dancers are really talented, and some of them could maybe be future choreographers, so that’s exciting.” I leaned to my right a bit as a woman squeezed by Kate and my table. “How’s the world of modeling?”

“Right now, it’s goin’ great! I’ve got that new shoot for Neiman Markus soon; that one’s gonna pay _big_.” 

Kate’s eyes lit up as she spoke. Though she’s been a great dancer, and a good friend to have around the studio, it was pretty damn clear modeling was the thing she was passionate about.

“Mina?” I hummed, acknowledging her words. “You’re doin' it again.”

I snapped myself completely back to reality only to find my fingers completely twisted and tangled up in the chain of my necklace, practically cutting off the circulation at this point.

“Shit,” I hissed before untangling myself.

“You been thinkin’ about your family again?” Kate’s playful bounciness had melted away, leaving behind a concerned friend. Part of me didn’t want to ruin our fun night out with the same old problems, but I also understood that if I didn’t get it out, she’d be worried the rest of the night.

“Always,” I admitted. “But more often as of late.” 

“Well, have you tried to find them again?” Solemnly, I shook my head.

“If the rest of them were here, I would have seen at least one of them by now.” 

I hadn’t told Kate the complete story, for obvious reasons, but I’d tried to stay as close to the source material as possible. The version she got was that we were put in danger, so my brothers, sisters, and I had to leave home really quickly, and somewhere along the way, we just got separated.

Technically, that was the truth. 

“I’m worried about my younger brother the most. I mean, don’t get me wrong, some of the others aren’t completely capable... but he’s only 13. And yeah, mentally, he’s extremely mature for his age, and he could definitely hold his own for a while, but I also know that if he was here, he would have found me by now. Which makes me worry someone else got him first...” I trailed off, tracing the rim of my now empty glass.

“You make it sound like he’s got assassins after him,” Kate laughed. I tried my best to do the same, attempting to dispel any suspicion on her end.

Right as I finished letting my thoughts out, the music changed, and I felt the urge to get up.

“Well,” I slammed my hands down on the table, “I think that’s enough spilling for one night. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling some dancing.” Kate flashed her signature smile and me and rose from her chair.

“Hell yes.”

As we made our way out onto the floor, I managed lose the last little bit of tension I held. I even managed to make casual conversation with a few women, though I wasn’t really looking for anything further than that. Every now and then, I’d glace over at Kate just to make sure she was still next to me, and she’d flash me a goofy smile and thumbs-up. Though I’d been doubtful for a moment, I was glad I came.

Once we’d had our fill of dancing, Kate and I headed back to our table, and almost immediately, she leaned closer, one eyebrow in the air.

“So?” She giggled, even after I shook my head.

“Don’t get me wrong, they all seemed like perfectly great women, but… I just didn’t get the feeling. You know?” Slightly disappointed, Kate resumed her normal, elegant posture.

“’The feeling’?”

“Oh, yeah. Every time I’ve met a future girlfriend, I’ve gotten this feeling in my chest. It’s like this intense warmth, but it’s only there for a second, and then it goes away. It almost feels like it thumps in my chest, and then it’s gone.”

“Interesting.”

Kate and I chatted for a while, my eyes drifting around as we did. The street lights outside the window by us illuminated families and figures strolling by, causing me to smile. But, when I looked a little more to the right, my heart stopped.

Three pairs of eyes were staring straight at me through the window, murmuring to each other with pallid faces. It appeared as though they’d seen a ghost, but I knew that wasn’t it. Those faces were just a little too familiar…

Quickly, I snapped my head back around, though I knew it was likely too late. I could feel my blood pulsing up in my head, causing the world around me to start pounding.

“Mina?” Kate whispered. “Aren’t those…”

“Some of my dancers,” I finished.

While the studio was a great place to work and take classes, I noticed pretty early on that the owners, and most of the dancers there, were pretty traditional. I didn’t know what I expected in 1960s Dallas, but it certainly made this scenario—where those three _definitely_ recognized me—precarious. Just because I wasn’t doing anything the police considered to be “degeneracy”, didn't mean they wouldn't go whispering around anyways. 

The fact people thought something as natural as a person's sexuality was wrong...

“Maybe you should go.” I knew Kate was doing that for my own protection, and not necessarily because she wanted to shoo me out.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.” As fast as we could, Kate and I snatched up our things and ducked out through the back, rushing for the safety of our cars.

“You call me if anyone gives you trouble,” Kate ordered.

“Same goes for you.”

I tried my best not to run through worst-case scenarios as I made the drive home. If even one of those guys decided to tell the owners of the studio where they saw me, I’d be in deep shit. It was absolute bullshit these were the sort of things I had to worry about here, especially because this was just how I was. The fact I had to think about losing my job if I wanted to be in a relationship, or even go somewhere that was meant for people with my interests infuriated me.

I further tensed when I pulled into my driveway and noticed a figure sitting on the front stoop, seemingly awaiting my arrival. They seemed to be on the shorter side, but I knew one of the dancers we’d seen earlier looked pretty close to the outline of the person here. I couldn’t just pull back out and head somewhere else now, they’d already seen me.

My only option was to face the music.

As I made my way to the steps, I dragged my feet in circular patterns, trying to build up enough of a charge. Honestly, at this point, I was more concerned with defending myself than this person seeing my powers. If I struck them, they’d probably forget anyways.

All my defenses fell away the moment the figure stood. Their young face fell under the warm lights from inside the house, revealing features fairly similar to mine. He still wore that stupid uniform, but given how young he was, he probably couldn’t have afforded to find new ones. I suppose that’s part of what older sisters are for.

I let out a gasp and flicked my wrist to dispel the charge, suddenly feeling an intense influx of emotions take control of me. Without care, I took large paces up to my doorstep and pulled him into a tight hug, savoring in the realization he was alive, well, and here. My brother had made it.

Eventually, I released him and crouched down, meeting eyes with him.

“Five,” I whispered. “How did you find me?” His gaze fell behind me for a moment, pointing out the fact my neighbors were still moving about.

“We have a lot to talk about.” His voice sounded grave, as though something tragic happened. “Just not out here.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I turned him around and ushered him inside, glancing behind me one last time before I shut the front door. Right as I turned to him, he let out a big yawn, causing me to laugh a little. “All right. Whatever catching up it is we have to do, it can wait,” I declared. His casual expression quickly switched to frustration at the mention of slowing down. 

“Mina, we don’t have time—“ 

“There’s a guest room at the other end of the hall upstairs.” I cut him off, unwilling to hear excuses. “Whatever’s going on, it can wait a few hours. It’s been a long day for me, too.”

Though he still seemed unhappy about it, Five turned and went upstairs, finding his way into the guest room. After I prepared for bed, I found myself lying awake for a while, my mind running at a million miles an hour.

Still, I was just glad my twin brother was here.


	3. What'd I Miss?

I woke up in a panic the next morning, the memories of last time I tried to get Five to sleep flooding in suddenly. He didn’t even get the chance to tell me what he was doing here, but given how impatient he was, there was a chance he would just jump somewhere else. Another one of our siblings would be a safe bet, but I still didn’t know if the rest of them were in Dallas.

Five being here _did_ give me hope.

Thankfully, when I carefully pushed open the door to the guest room, I found him fast asleep, wrapped up in the thick blankets provided. I found myself smiling as I looked down at him before I shut the door again. He genuinely just looked like a little kid there, and not an old man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. It provided some much-needed comfort.

For the time being, I decided to just let Five have his rest. If he was still asleep now, he clearly needed it. In the meantime, I got to straightening up a little and preparing myself some breakfast. It’d be good to leave enough for Five, just in case he wanted any. Most of the time, though, he just had coffee for breakfast, and that somehow tied him over. I tried my best not to pass my criticisms, given that he’d been through so much, but I think he often forgot in body, he was still 13.

Right as the pot of coffee was finishing brewing, my phone rang, cutting through the sizzling, popping, and gurgling of breakfast. Completely forgetting the events of last night, I wiped my hands and strode over, picking up the phone without apprehension.

“Hello?” For a moment, there was silence on the other end, before a familiar voice started speaking.

_“Mina? This is Robert Codere.”_

I froze. Robert was the husband of the woman who opened and ran the dance studio. They handled a lot of the business aspects of the place together, but we still saw him pretty frequently.

And he _never_ made calls over the weekend.

“How can I help you, Robert?” My voice shook a little, but I tried not to let that bother me.

_“Look, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll…”_ He cut himself off, as though he didn’t feel he owed me an explanation. _“We received some calls to the house last night from dancers of yours, claiming they’d seen you at one of those establishments for—“_ Once again, he didn’t finish his sentence. _“I’m sure you know.”_

“Yes, sir,” I growled, my fear slowly boiling into rage.

_“We just think there may be several people who wouldn’t be comfortable working with someone… like you. Not to mention we have the studio’s reputation to think about.”_ I supposed he wanted me to ask what he was saying, but I refused to give him that. Not after the way he said ‘like you’. _“We’re going to let you go. Please turn in your keys to the studio by the end of next week.”_

With that, the other line clicked, leaving me with an unceremonious and unjust firing. Part of me had expected this after last night, but that didn’t make it any more infuriating. The assurance that things were more fair where we came from did absolutely nothing for me, because this was still happening, even back in 2019... if there was even a 2019 to go back to. How someone could possibly consider treating someone different just because of their identity would never make sense to me.

I made an attempt to collect myself and shake things off, when I heard creaking on the stairs. My eyes followed Five as he made his way down the stairs, still looking slightly exhausted. He only looked to me for a moment before his brow furrowed.

“What happened?” I laughed a little, forgetting that he knew exactly what every little tick of my face meant.

“I just got fired,” I sighed, “because I’m a lesbian in 1960s Dallas.” Five paused for a moment, thinking things over, before he shrugged.

“If they fired you for a reason as stupid as that, then they’re idiots.”

Even with his deadpan delivery, Five still made me smile as he made his way into the kitchen, his nose practically guiding him as the aroma of freshly roasted and brewed coffee lured him over with its gentle siren song. He stared at the pot for a moment, then turned to me.

“I thought you hated coffee.” I leaned against the counter and started to plate the food.

“I do. But I still had the guy at the store give me the best stuff they had… just in case I ever needed it.”

Finally, that brought a little smile to his face, which lingered as he poured the coffee and we sat down. There was a moment of awkward staring, one of us daring the other to speak first.

“So, how’d you find me?” I inquired, taking a bite of food.

“I found your address in the phonebook,” he stated bluntly. “When I got here, you weren’t home, so I figured I’d just wait a bit.”

“Yeah, but—not to make it seem like there was pressure or anything—why didn’t you come find me sooner?”

“I just got here.” I paused in my movements, fully registering what Five had just said.

“Wait, what? How is that possible?”

“From what I can tell, when we jumped, all of us got scattered. So far, it looks like all of us are in Dallas, but we got dropped in different times.”

“’All of us?’” My anger from earlier was starting to fall away the more I talked to Five.

“Luther and Diego are here, just spread out. I haven’t been able to track the others down, but I met someone who saw all of us land and took pictures of us, so I know they’re around here somewhere.” That was better than nothing. At least everyone was in Dallas. “I tried to explain things to the two of them, but they just dismissed it. They’re more worried about their own shit.”

“Things?” Slowly, Five set his mug down and looked me right in the eyes, startling me a little.

“The end of the world followed us back here, Mina. In nine days, a nuclear doomsday is going to hit.”

My brain went completely blank for a moment, until bunches of questions started flooding in. Each of them was fighting to be the first one out of my mouth, causing it to just hang open as I blinked rapidly.

“The hell do you mean it followed us?” I demanded. “This isn’t some lost puppy, it’s a concept. How does it follow?”

“Jesus Christ, Mina. I don’t know.” There was a bit of snippiness in his voice, but I could tell he was trying his best to control it. “All I know is we have to figure out how it happens and stop it.”

“Great,” I sighed. “So it’s the same thing, just in 1963, and with nukes instead of Vanya shooting the moon.” Once I said it out loud, I realized how dismissive that sounded, so I quickly backtracked. “That means we’ve already got a leg up. We’ve done this before, we can do it again.”

Following that reassurance, I noticed Five watching me eat curiously. It didn’t take much to figure out why, and although he was probably a little scared to ask, I didn’t mind talking about it. A lot had changed since we’d last seen each other.

“When I landed in 1961, I met this woman, and she noticed that I didn’t exactly look… healthy. She took me in and helped me out as much as she could. Her sister had been through something pretty similar, and they managed to help her out without sending her to one of those terrible institutions, so they knew a lot about what to do. I was pretty impressed. And I haven’t had a relapse yet, so I’m taking that as a huge win.” I took a shaky breath, my next set of words not as easy as the last. “Eventually, she went off and… got married to some guy, so she just left this place for me. It’s not technically legal, but at least I have somewhere to live.”

At a few points in that conversation, my voice wavered. Five knew what that meant, I understood that much right now, but I just wasn’t ready to talk about things yet. It definitely wasn’t the healthiest thing to hold onto the memories I left out for this long, but there wasn’t someone around here I could open up to… until now, of course.

“I’m glad you’re better, Mina,” Five muttered. “I’m sorry I kept you waiting for so long.” I reached over and squeezed his arm.

“What matters is you’re here now.”

As we continued to eat, my thoughts wandered back to last night, and I found myself worrying about Kate. She said to call if there was trouble, but… I just had to make sure she was okay.

“I have to make a quick phone call,” I explained as I picked up my now empty plate and set it in the sink. “And I need a shower.”

“Elliott’s waiting for me to come back.” Before I could ask, he cut back in. “He’s the one that took all the pictures of us. He’s trying to help track everyone down.”

Translation: we needed to leave soon.

“Give me, like 15 minutes?” He nodded, pouring himself his second mug of coffee.

I made my way over to the phone and dialed Kate’s number, my leg bouncing as I waited. Thankfully, after only a few rings, the line clicked, and Kate’s southern belle drawl came through the other end.

_“Hello?”_ She sounded wary, likely because of the events of last night.

“Kate, it’s Mina.” I could hear clattering on the other, likely the sound of her swiping away the pen and paper she kept near her phone so she could lean against it.

_“Mina. Thank God,”_ Kate sighed. _“Is everything all right?”_

“Yeah, yeah, I just…” I smiled. “Crazy story, when I came home last night, my brother was waiting here for me.”

_“The little one?”_ Kate sounded so excited, despite never having met any of my family.

“Yup. He’s in the kitchen right now.”

Right as I was about to launch into talking about work, Five appeared from the kitchen with a mug in his hand and tapped his wrist. Though I wanted to be able to stop and talk to Kate, I understood a doomsday kind of took precedence over the petty little things that would become irrelevant when we inevitably went back to 2019. After all, we didn’t come from this time. That had to at least have something to do with this apocalypse scenario.

And then, like a dust cloud at the end of a storm, the reality of this situation’s ending settled, and I realized this might be the last time I ever talked to Kate.

I had to get a goodbye in.

_“Mina? Are you sure you’re okay, darlin’? You’ve gone quiet.”_ I cleared my throat, attempting to compose myself.

“Yeah, sorry, I just… I have to deal with a family thing now, so this might be the last time I talk to you in, well, a long while. So I just wanted to say thanks for being such a supportive, wonderful friend. You changed my life, and I really mean that. Thank you for being… well, you. And don’t give up hope. It may not be the equality that we’ve pictured, but... things are going to start to get a little better for us soon” Kate remained quiet, and for a moment, I thought I’d maybe scared her off.

_“You go out there and do what you need to do, Mina,”_ she encouraged, her voice perking right up again. _“Be with your family. You’ve definitely earned it. I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”_

“Yeah. Thanks again for everything.”

_“Goodbye and good luck, Mina.”_

“Goodbye and good luck, Kate.”

Not even a second after I hung up, I whipped around and started to run up the stairs.

“Just give me ten minutes to shower and change, and then we’re out of here!” I shouted down to Five. “I promise!”

“I left a mug of tea on the counter!” he called up. I paused in my steps, taking in the kindness of that gesture for a moment. Five was angry and snippy most of the time, but sometimes, he showed how much he cared.

“It’s great to have you back, little brother,” I smiled, leaning over the railing. I expected him to get offended by the ‘little’ comment, but he just smiled back at me.

“It’s great to have you back, too, sis.”


	4. Off Their Rockers

Five and I leaned in closer to the magnifier in front of a grainy set of pictures, attempting to get a better look. These were the pictures he told me Elliott had taken, but honestly, I wasn’t quite sure how Five would have been able to figure that out, were it not for Elliott’s supposed descriptions of the people that fell. Sure, based on Luther’s outline, you could probably figure it out, but it could still seem pretty suspect.

My brother hadn’t bothered with much of an introduction to Elliott, but based on the way the man immediately started to go on about meeting the people in the alley, it was pretty clear Five had already filled him in on most matters. He seemed like a good man, if not a bit squirrely. Either way, I’m sure he’d be able to help us out a lot, given the amount of conspiracy theories he seemed to subscribe to.

“Elliott, did you develop these photos yourself?” Five asked as he studied the picture of Allison.

“Of course.” I flashed him a thankful smile as he handed me a muffin he’d kept in his fridge. “Can’t exactly drop that stuff off at the neighborhood Fotomat. Government has eyes everywhere.” Trying my best not to drop crumbs, I turned and watched my brother as he grabbed a pen and scribbled out the date on the yellow box Five had been holding onto.

“I didn’t see a darkroom.”

“Yeah, I converted the hallway closet,” Elliott answered proudly, before he became distracted by the large radio he kept nearby squealing with feedback. I flinched slightly, still unsure about why Elliott was tuned into police frequencies. He really was paranoid, if not a bit off the deep end. That almost made me feel special, acknowledging the fact that he trusted Five and I clearly meant something.

“Can you develop this?” Five asked, holding the yellow box he’d kept in his pocket out to Elliott.

“Hmm?” He took the small object and flipped it over, reading the label on the back. “Huh. ‘Frankel Footage’. Friends of yours?” Unless Five’s personality had completely turned around, I couldn’t see him as the kind of person that had friends.

“Cousins on my robot mother’s side.” I choked a little on some crumbs as Five delivered that information, impressed that Elliott didn’t even skip a beat. “Can you do it or not?”

“Sure I can,” he shrugged.

“How long?” I finished off my breakfast, and after dusting off my hands, I made my way closer to my brother.

“Well, I mean, I’m running low on acetic acid,” Elliott began to ramble. “Beeker’s Cameras is open today, but it’s two miles away. I mean, I’d have to take the bus. On the other hand, Gibson’s is only ten blocks away, but I gotta cut through the park, and there’s pigeons—“

“Elliott,” Five interjected, trying to make him get to the point.

“It’s like five, may be six hours.” Five’s eyes closed and he shook his head in frustration, but I was determined to help make the best of this situation.

“Well, kid, is there anything you want to do?” I asked, setting a hand on his shoulder.

Right as Five looked up at me, a voice came on over Elliott’s radio, drawing out attentions toward whatever they were saying.

_“Attention all units, we have a Code 3-15 at the Holbrook Sanitarium.”_ Something about that name caused Five’s expression to change. That must have been the place where he’d found Diego…

“The hell is a Code 3-15?” My brows furrowed as Elliott spooned corn flakes into his mouth.

“Mm, fugitives on the run.” Some of the milk he’d scooped up dripped out of his mouth, causing me to gag just a little bit. Meanwhile, Five made his way over to the machinery and leaned closer to the speakers, trying to get all the information.

_“Twenty-five patients still at large. Many are considered armed and dangerous.”_ Five glanced back at me and nodded, confirming what I’d been worried about.

“Diego,” both of us muttered. If he was out there, somewhere, we had to go find him. We’d get a lot farther on this whole doomsday thing if we had as many of our siblings as possible, compared to Five and I running around and searching for clues.

“Oh, who’s Diego?” I paused, trying to figure out the best way to describe Diego, when Five beat me to the punch.

“Imagine Batman, then aim lower.” I resisted the urge to laugh, knowing there was some seriousness to the insult.

“Yeah, that’s… actually pretty accurate,” I acknowledged. “We have to go find him.” Five started to pace back and forth a little, his eyes cast down as he attempted to sort through possible locations.

“Of course we do. But we can’t do that unless we know where he is.”

“It’s Diego,” I scoffed. “He couldn’t have gotten very far.”

“Wherever he is, it’s probably in connection with…” He stopped in his tracks and looked up at me. “…that one upcoming event. From what I gathered, he’s obsessed with stopping it.”

“What, the one you told me about?” Five shook his head ‘no’. “Then what—“

“The one that’s a little closer.” It was obvious he was being vague for Elliott’s sake, but unfortunately, that left me a little out of the loop as well. After realizing I hadn’t caught on, Five made sure Elliott couldn’t see his face, then as carefully as possible, mouthed the word ‘Kennedy’.

Given all the doomsday and apocalyptic shit that we’d experienced in the past, I almost forgot Kennedy was supposed to get shot soon.

“Oh,” I drawled, nodding. “Really? He thinks that’s a good idea?”

“It’s Diego,” Five reasoned. “He’s got that whole hero complex thing going on.”

“Fair point.” I started to put things together in my head, and I vaguely seemed to recall that Lee Harvey Oswald—the most likely person Diego would go after—worked at something to do with books.

“The person that does the thing,” I piped up, still trying to leave out as many details as possible. “He worked at, like, a library or something, right?” Five thought things over for another couple of minutes, then thankfully, he remembered.

“A book depository!” he shouted, probably a little too enthusiastically for Elliott to think Five was sane.

Then again, none of this really seemed like the sort of thing that made us look like rational, normal people,

“Elliot, is there a book depository around here?” I asked enthusiastically. He stumbled back a little, caught off-guard by our sudden shouting, but he was able to compose himself on a moment’s notice.

“There’s the Texas School Book Depository over on Elm Street,” he informed us, pointing as though it were right around the corner. We couldn’t make absolute certain that Diego would be there, but it was a pretty good place to start.

With a starting place established, Five and I nodded to each other, then started toward the door.

“You get started on the film,” he ordered. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

The two of us waited until we were outside of Elliott’s sightline before I started to turn and move, attempting to build up enough of a charge so that both of us could jump without putting too much of a strain on Five. Since it was completely clear and sunny, that task proved to take quite a while, which gave me enough time to find the hole in our plan.

“Are you even going to be able to Elm Street?” I asked, keeping my eyes trained on a wall so I wouldn’t get dizzy. “That’s pretty far away.”

“I remember what the building looks like. We should be okay,” he assured me. After a few more turns, I’d built up what I thought was enough of a charge and the second after I stopped, I lunged forward and grabbed onto my brother’s hand, and the two of us jumped.

The hot, Texas sun beat down on our heads as I let go and took a quick glance around. Sure enough, Five had managed to get us to our destination, and not far ahead, I could see a car with a broken window camped out under the shade of the trees planted across the way. There was a woman in it I didn’t recognize, but the person right next to her was undeniably Diego.

“Can you do a jump without a charge?” I whispered, trying to keep from drawing unwanted attention toward us.

“Yeah, that’s close enough.” Just as quickly as we landed, Five blinked both of us into the back seat of the car, somehow without either party in front of us noticing.

“Then why are you doing this?” the woman asked, staring at Diego with one brow raised.

“Because he’s an idiot.”

The sound of Five’s voice caused the woman next to Diego to jump and whip around, staring at us with confused, wide eyes. Diego, on the other hand, remained completely still, almost looking as though he wanted to swing around and hit Five. Despite that, a relief washed over me when I cast my glance to him. It was just so good to know the others were here, and seeing him again made me feel comforted… even if he was an asshole at times.

“Who the hell are you two?” the woman demanded. Most likely, she was someone that had been locked up with Diego that managed to get out and ran with him.

“Hi. I’m his loving brother.” Five waved, that annoying snark now returning to his voice.

“And, uh, I’m his sister,” I replied, feeling slightly awkward about just barging in here.

“The former of whom left me to rot in the nuthouse,” Diego muttered, malice dripping from his words as he slowly turned to glare at Five. “Nice to see you, Mina.” He didn’t even break his gaze for a moment.

“You too, Diego.” I cast my eyes toward the woman next to him and shrugged, trying my best to put her at ease.

“I did that to protect you from yourself,” Five argued, the anger in his voice rising.

“That’s quite sweet,” the woman deadpanned. She and Five had only been in each other’s presence for less than a minute, but it already seemed like she wasn’t the biggest fan.

“Okay, all three of you, out,” Diego ordered, casting his glance primarily toward the woman that had been accompanying him. As expected, Five wasn’t having it.

“Lose the crazy lady and come with me,” he shot back. “We have important business.”

“Diego, you should really hear him out,” I vouched, pointing toward my younger brother.

“I am not going anywhere with either of you.”

My gaze moved to Five, the expression on his face starting to make me wary. Whenever that bitter smirk took over, it wasn’t a good sign, nor was the mischievous way he wrung his hands. He looked in my direction, and a split second later, he shot past me, pushing me down in my seat so he could stick his head out the window.

“Officer!” he shouted, causing my heart to jump out of my chest. Immediately, I grabbed onto Five’s arm and yanked him back, glaring at him.

“What are you doing?” Diego snapped as he leaned over into the back seat. Now that I was getting an up-close look at him, I had to admit: he definitely had a bit of a crazy-eyes situation going on.

“I hear there’s a reward out for you two,” Five smirked.

“He’s bluffing.” Diego and Five continued to stare each other down for a moment, silently daring one to break first. The silence remained awkward and tense until, finally, Diego relented.

“He’s not,” he grumbled, still uncomfortably close to Five. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”

“What about me?” Diego’s companion looked directly at Five, trying to persuade him more than the rest of us in the car.

“And I’m bringing the crazy lady.”

The way she smiled caused a warmth to thump in my chest as Diego turned around and the ‘crazy lady’ turned on the car and pulled away.


	5. Grassy Knoll Conspiracies

_**For those of you that just got update notifications: It was just editing. The only reason you got a notification was because I had to add in another chapter to keep the length from being too big. Still, you're welcome to go back and look at the changes :)** _

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The last thing I expected when Five, Diego, the woman—whose name I had learned was Lila—and I returned to Elliott’s place of residence was to be greeted with the barrel of a shotgun. On instinct, I stepped out in front of my younger brother, shielding most of him, as Elliott emerged from the shadows, shaking slightly while his weapon stared us down. Surely, the presence of two new people wasn’t any more comforting after… whatever it was that got him so shaken up.

“Where did you get the film?” he demanded, his eyes primarily darting from Five to myself and back again. “’The Frankel Footage’. The _truth_ this time.”

“You know this lunatic?” Diego asked quietly as the man in question slowly inched closer to us.

“New acquaintance,” Five sighed. “He’s harmless.”

“Are you sure about that?” Lila’s voice wavered slightly, but I couldn’t blame her. Her first experiences with our family hadn’t exactly been the friendliest.

“Are you, or are you not, an enemy of the people?” Elliot screamed, blinking rapidly.

My brothers’ and my gazes fell to each other, genuinely contemplating the question for a moment. We couldn’t exactly say we weren’t because, technically, that was a lie, but our intents certainly weren’t to hurt harmless citizens.

“Such an open-ended question, yeah,” Diego muttered.

“Really depends on the people.”

“And the circumstances,” I added. Clearly, that wasn’t the answer Elliott was hoping for, because his hostility only grew the closer he managed to get to us.

“You move one more muscle, I will blow your brains out.” He really was trying his best to intimidate us, but all threats just fell on deaf ears. We’d taken out _far_ worse people than Elliott, and the three of us seemed to understand the moment we took his weapon away from him, he’d lose the sudden burst of bravery he was currently riding.

“You want to take this or should I?”

“Nah, we’ve got this,” I assured Diego lowly. “You ready for a tiny jump?”

“Always.”

In a literal flash, Five and I blinked up to Elliott, startling him into firing the round he had loaded on the shotgun. Immediately after it went off, I slapped my hands down on his shoulders, just enough to cause him to flinch, which allowed Diego to step forward and snatch the gun from his hands. Once the man in front of me seemed to come to, I whipped him around and pointed an accusatory finger toward him, causing him to lurch his head back.

“I think you’ll find it wise not to point a gun at my brother ever again.” I moved my eyes from Five to Diego, who were both staring at me with slight concern. “Either of them.” Lila’s sputtering directed me to turn and look at her. She had her hands raised up slightly, as though she needed to surrender, and she couldn’t seem to pick which one of us to look at.

“What the hell just happened?” She still managed to laugh, even though she seemed genuinely terrified.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” I shrugged. “Now, since the film has obviously been developed, we should watch it—figure out whatever the hell we’re supposed to see.”

“Agreed.” Five leaned around my side, waving his finger between Diego and Elliott, who remained frozen in fear. “Tie him up, just in case.”

Though I wanted to protest the move, given that Elliott likely just had a little shock to the system (no pun intended), the fear he would try and attack either of my brothers again was enough motivation to keep my mouth shut. While Diego carried Elliott and tied him up in one of the dentist chairs lying around the condemned office, Five and I set up the projector and shut off the lights. It took a moment for the reel of film to fully wrap around, and once it did, the bright light of the images that exploded forth caused me to slam my eyes shut for a moment.

_“Is it on?”_ The elderly woman in front of the camera spoke just above the lens, addressing whoever was on the other end. The pink scarf wrapped around her white hairs flapped gently in the breeze, giving her a sort of elegance that usually came with movie stars.

_“I don’t know,”_ the man behind the camera responded.

_“What do you mean? There’s an ‘on’ button. Just—there’s something over—the jigga-ma-thing, whatever.”_ I laughed a little as the images being recorded on the camera titled suddenly as the camera was passed from one member of the couple to the other.

_“I hit the jigga-ma-thing,”_ the man insisted.

_“Okay, well, just— Give it to me. I know what to do.”_ With the camera now in new hands, the image lowered back down to an elderly man, donning a warm sweater and a big grin.

“They’re so cute,” Lila commented absentmindedly. “I love old couples. I’m always so proud of them for not murdering each other.” As she spoke, I looked down at her, and a smile inched its way on my face as I watched her paint Elliott’s toenails with an iridescent green polish—the same one on her fingers.

“Why are we watching this?” Diego groaned, growing impatient by the second.

“Shush,” Five scolded, not even bothering to glance at his brother for even a moment. Carefully, I leaned down and rested an elbow on his shoulder, making sure I wasn’t putting too much weight on my younger twin.

_“Yeah, I… I’m Dan Frankel. And…”_

 _“I’m Edna Frankel,”_ the old woman called from behind the camera.

_“…Edna Frankel. We are in Dallas, Texas, to see the president. Today’s date is November 22, 1963.”_ My eyes widened as I attempted to keep my gasp as quiet as possible. This was _the_ day… and we were presenting it in front of two people who had no idea what was supposed to happen.

“Well, that’s six days from now.” Lila’s observation was strangely calm, as though she didn’t see anything wrong with the fact she was viewing something that, for her, hadn’t happened yet.

“Holy shit. This is it.” Diego leaned forward, as though getting closer to the screen from where he sat would reveal some new detail. “The grassy knoll. Kennedy’s about to get shot. How do you have this?”

“Hazel died to get me this footage,” Five answered casually. My brows knitted together as I glanced down at the top of his head, completely unaware of the fact Hazel was no longer around. “It must be the key to stopping doomsday.”

“Hazel?” Diego questioned.

“Long story.”

“What’s doomsday?” I offered Lila a sheepish grin.

“Longer story.” My attention moved back to Five, who flashed his eyes up to me for a moment.

“What exactly did he say to you?” I hadn’t had the chance to further press Five when he first brought up the footage, but now, the opportunity had been passed to me on a slightly-bloodied platter.

“Well, he was killed before he could explain. But whatever he wanted us to see, it’s on this film.”

_“This is very exciting.”_

Before Dan Frankel could finish whatever he was going on about, the infamous three gunshots popped in the background, and the camera fell down for a moment—likely when its operator ducked to avoid potential fire. People on the footage screamed and cried out about the president before booking it as fast as they could. But just before the couple filming took off, my eyes caught the man in with the black umbrella… sporting an all-too-familiar face.

“Oh, no.” I broke away from my brother and crept closer to the screen as the footage was rewound, unwilling to believe what was presented right before our very eyes. Trembling, Diego slid off the counter he’d been perched on and came to stand at my side, studying the frozen image just as intensely as I was.

“This can’t be…” Five muttered, pushing through the two of us so he could get a better look.

“Okay, you gonna fill me in now, guys?” Lila sighed from behind us. “What the hell is this shit we’re watching?”

“No, that’s impossible,” Diego denied.

“Clearly, it’s not,” I countered, unable to break my stare away from the man standing tall on the film.

“What… what is it?” Elliot managed to ask, despite the gag shoved into his mouth.

“Dad,” the three of us answered breathily.

After allowing ourselves another moment of disbelief, Diego, Five, and I began to pace, each in different, but equally frantic, patterns. The fact Dad could somehow be in 1963, looking the exact same as he did the last time I had seen him made absolutely no goddamn sense, but there wasn’t another person that could be; the vague monocle chain against the background sealed that. But of all the terrible things I could see Dad engaging in, this… just didn’t seem like one of them.

“Of course Dad would be involved in the assassination,” Diego seethed as he plopped back onto the counter. “I should’ve known.”

“No, you’re jumping to conclusions.” The second after the words left Five’s mouth, Diego jumped up and strode toward him, causing me to stiffen and move closer to the younger of the two out of fear the latter would completely lose his shit.

“What else is he doing standing on the grassy knoll, holding an open black umbrella on a sunny day in Dallas the exact same moment the president gets shot?” Diego fumed, pointing furiously at our grainy father.

“It doesn’t look good, I admit.”

“No, he’s the signalman for the whole goddamn thing.” I couldn’t bring myself to buy what Diego was fervently selling.

“Easy, Diego,” Five cautioned. “Seriously.”

“No, it makes sense,” he insisted. “This is what Hazel was obviously trying to tell you. We have to stop Dad from killing the president.”

“Did Hazel even know who dad was?” I mussitated, spotting an immediate hole in Diego’s entire conspiracy theory.

“Diego, calm down, all right? Dad was no boy scout, but presidential assassination? It’s never been his thing.” Though I admired Five’s efforts, reasoning with Diego was like trying to convince a steel pole to get up and walk away.

“How would you know?” Diego’s voice had turned to a hostile growl. “You skipped out on his golden years.”

My breath immediately caught in my throat, causing me to choke slightly. For Diego to throw that out so casually, as though it had been some sort of pleasant experience was just asinine. Granted, I hadn’t been there, but having to deal with the loss for 17 years was enough for my frustration to shoot up into rage.

“Skipped out?” Five’s voice cracked a little as he slowly stomped closer to his brother, who just continued to stare like a madman. “You think I had it easy, Diego? I was alone for 45 years.” Unable to handle the thoughts swirling in my head, I pushed my brothers apart, unable to look at either of them as a few hot tears pricked the corners of my sockets.

“Okay, look, I think there’s more than one party here that would rather not relive the experiences that came with that, so if we could just… drop it, forever?” I pleaded.

“You know what? We don’t have time for this,” Five dismissed, turning away. “Dad’s clearly in Dallas, right? Let’s just go talk to him. Maybe he can help us fix the timeline.”

“Dallas is a big place. We need to find him first.” Although Diego was right, that wasn’t going to be as hard as he made it out to be.

“Gee, if only we had a magical, old-timey way of finding people and their addresses.” Shaking his head, Five made his way over to one of Elliott’s cabinets and pulled out a thick, blue phonebook, slamming it down on the table with a definitive ‘thud’.

“Let’s start simple,” Five suggested as Diego practically threw the book open and began to furiously scan through the names listed. “His name.” Not one of the ‘HAR’ names matched, meaning we’d have to go for something else.

“Try his company. D.S. Umbrella Manufacturing Co.” The way Diego turned to look at me made me back up a bit.

“Yeah. I know the name.” Without looking, he flipped perfectly to the ‘D’ section of the book. “Thanks.” I followed the point of his finger all the way down the page, until it landed on the exact name I had just recited a moment ago. “Holy shit. ‘D.S. Umbrella. Eighty-two Olive.’” Clearly not wanting to waste another second, Diego moved away and pulled up the screen the film had been projected on. “Let’s go.” From behind us, I could hear Elliott grunting and struggling, attempting to get free.

“He okay to leave here like that?”

“Yeah, he’s fine,” Five assured me before he shifted his eyes to Diego. “What about the girl?” The three of us stopped in our tracks and looked back, finding the chair Lila had been sat in abandoned.

“Shit,” Diego groaned. He sounded pretty reluctant to deal with her, but I didn’t mind stepping in his place.

“I can talk to her, if you want,” I offered. “I mean, I know we don’t really know each other all that well, but I’m sure I could still do a better job than you.” Electing to ignore the obvious jab, Diego lamely gestured his hand back toward the room we’d just left, as though granting me permission.

After a bit of searching, I wound up finding Lila curled up in Elliott’s makeshift darkroom, trembling slightly. I debated, momentarily, whether or not it was right for me to do this, but it also wouldn’t look good if I backed out. Sucking everything up, I moved all the way in and offered her a gentle smile.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked carefully, trying my best not to come off as hostile.

“Nothing, just…” She sniffled and wiped her right hand against her dress. “…you know, getting some air.”

“In a closet?” Though I intended that to be a joke, Lila’s expression remained as terrified as before.

“There’s a draft.” I cast my eyes back to my brothers, making sure they weren’t trying to rush me, then moved further into the darkroom.

“All right, Lila, Diego wanted me to let you know we have to take off with Five, okay?”

“It’s happening again, isn’t it?” she trembled, asking as though I had a reference.

“What is?” I kept my voice relatively calm. Lila twirled her finger around next to her head, looking at me with terrified eyes.

“Cuckoo.” It only took me a second to realize what she was referencing.

“Right, because you were…” I sighed, wanting to brush that off. It wasn’t important to me, in all honesty.

“That home movie. Doomsday. Mina, the last time I started seeing things, they put me away. Maybe I shouldn’t have left.”

“Stop,” I interjected, speaking purely on instinct. Though I knew I was running out my brothers’ patience, I hopped up on the counter with her and smiled again.

“Do you… Do you believe there are things in this universe we’re never meant to understand?” It was pretty philosophical for someone I didn’t know all that well, but I hoped when I got to the point, it would help her feel better.

“Well, I failed remedial school. Most things I don’t understand.” Not quite the answer I was expecting, but it still worked. “Like yogurt. How does it know when to stop being milk?” I bit my tongue, fighting back the urge to laugh at something so unintentionally cute.

“Okay. Like yogurt. We don’t have to understand shit about it for it to be real. Right? Doesn’t make us crazy. That home movie… it’s just that. It’s like yogurt.” Lila sniffled again, then shook her head.

“Look, no offense, but I don’t know you well enough to take your word on that.” I didn’t blame her on that at all.

“Well, as long as you don’t have any reservations… I’d like to change that.” I watched the fear trickle away for a moment, causing my chest to feel warm again. “Everything’s going to work out, Lila.” Cautiously, I reached out and wiped a couple tears from her cheek, hoping I wasn’t stepping too far over any boundary. Thankfully, she didn’t try to hit me, instead opting to hold her hand out, pinky raised in the air.

“Pinky promise?” I happily reached up and linked my own finger with hers.

“The pinkiest.” The tears finally seemed to stop, reassuring me enough to get up and start toward the door. “We’ve gotta leave you here with Elliott, okay?”

“Why?” I paused in the doorway, reveling in what I was about to say for a moment. This felt like the first time these words weren’t completely drenched in a negative connotation… only mostly.

“I’ve got a family thing.”

With that, I made my way back to my brothers, who were both waiting for me with the same suspicious, yet knowing, expressions on their faces.

“What?” I laughed a little, trying to shrug off the awkwardness of the moment. “She’s pretty. Besides, she doesn’t seem crazy to me at all. Just… scared.”

“All right, come on, lover girl,” Diego taunted, pushing me forward a little to get me to walk with them down the stairs.


	6. Mannequins on the Father's Side

**_I decided to give you guys 2 chapters this week, as a thank you for putting up with my frantic rewrites and constant Author’s Notes. Enjoy :)_ **

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Tendrils of fog floated in front of the darkened building, giving the already ominous situation a stomach-churning sense of foreboding. The establishment itself had fallen into shameful disrepair, a fact obvious even from a considerable distance. The only thing about this operation that offered any semblance of reassurance was the fact all the lights were off, meaning we might just be able to snatch some sort of useful information and get the hell out. Though the original plan had been to confront Dad directly, I didn’t feel quite ready to look him in the eye yet, given the last few times I’d seen him, I’d declared my dislike for him pretty damn clearly. Just because he hadn’t experienced that yet, didn’t mean I felt righteous and justified in my actions.

The chill of the night air caused me to shudder as I opened the door next to me and stepped out onto the pavement glistening with water.

“This is it,” I heard Five mutter, his eyes unable to leave the towering monster before us. Despite my reluctance, I managed to move my feet and get relatively close to the entrance. However, the sight of my brother stopped dead in his tracks drew my attention backwards.

“’D.S. Umbrella.’ This _is_ it,” Diego remarked. While he continued to assess our means of entry, I turned on my heel and gently wrapped an arm around Five’s shoulders, snapping his wide eyes up in my direction.

“You okay?” I asked quietly, offering him a comforting smile.

“Yeah, fine. Just…” He shook his head and started to move, forcing me to walk with him. It didn’t take much for me to figure out what was going on, and I certainly couldn’t blame him.

“How long’s it been since you’ve seen the old man?” Though he’d stated it not long ago, I almost always forgot how many years had passed for Five when he got stuck… mainly because I wanted to erase the event from my memory altogether. The thought of my younger brother, trapped and all alone, losing his mind…

“Forty-five years.” I would have expected at least a little frustration, given that I didn’t remember that detail, but his voice just croaked with fear.

“That’s a trip,” Diego grunted as he removed one of his knives from his belt and started to fiddle with the lock.

“No kidding.” I hugged him a little closer as we leaned against the wall, hoping to calm his nerves enough so he wouldn’t turn and run—not that Five was the sort. “You know, when I was stuck out there in the apocalypse, there wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t hear his voice in my head.”

“What was he saying?” I figured it would maybe be some piece of wisdom—something that pushed Five through and kept him going for as long as he did. Maybe it was even the thing that motivated him to find a way back to his family.

“’I told you so.’”

Then again, Dad wasn’t the sort to mince words. Thinking back on it, I couldn’t remember anything he said to any of us that wasn’t some sort of correction or denunciation.

“Yeah, he did say that a lot…” Quickly, I shook my head, trying to get myself back on track. “Well, if Dad’s here, he’s never met you before, so he can’t say ‘I told you so’.” Five’s sullen expression didn’t waver.

“I’m sure he’ll find a way.”

Without waiting for either of us to speak another word, Five blinked into the entrance and unlocked the door, completely erasing any progress Diego may have made. Truthfully, Diego wasn’t really necessary in that part of the equation, he just jumped on solving it first.

“Gotta remember that.”

“I’m kind of impressed you managed to forget,” I laughed as I strolled past him, entering the nearly pitch-black lobby.

A few chairs and couches stood firm atop the linoleum floor, the cushions somehow completely unwrinkled from the presumed years of people sitting on them. Clusters of dust lined the shades of lamps, dulling the vibrant colors buried deep beneath. A few papers and magazines were scattered on tables, but I couldn’t make any of them out with nothing but the moonlight to illuminate the small print.

Taking care not to create a disturbance, I reached over and turned on one of the lamps, but only a few seconds later, the bulb flickered, before completely burning out—a sign it hadn’t been changed in ages.

“Shit,” I groaned.

“Guess Dad wasn’t much for home décor.” Just to confirm, Five punched one of the pillows, releasing a fairly large cloud of dust into the already littered air. 

“Feels more like a front,” he observed. 

“A front for what?” While I believed him, I couldn’t think of anything else Dad might be using this building for.

“I don’t know.”

There was only one way to find out… I broke off toward the right door, causing Five to follow, while Diego pressed down on the left handle, revealing a long hallway that seemingly lead to nothing.

“Well, I’ll take the left,” Diego shrugged, resigning himself. “Yell if you, uh… get in trouble.”

“I should be saying that to you,” I smirked, causing him to roll his eyes before we headed down opposite ways.

The sides of the hall were littered with doors shut tight, hiding who-knows-what behind them. It was strange there was no door at the end of the hall, and it seemed to just cut off. This entire building had an ominous feeling to it, and at first, I thought it was maybe due to the threat of Dad waiting inside; but now… something was definitely off about this place.

The first couple of doors remained locked, no matter how hard I jiggled the handles. Thankfully, above the second one I tried, there was a deep line, indicating this door had a way to at least peek in. With trace amounts of hesitance, I pushed on it slightly, and when no alarms or warnings went off, I deemed it safe to open it the rest of the way and flip on the light switch.

The moment the bulbs flickered to life, I backed up slightly, staring at the scene in front of us with baffled eyes. Dad had set up furniture to look like a typical family home’s living room, complete with a mural of what looked like the view out a window of a nuclear explosion painted across the wall. But what caught my attention were the three mannequins seated on the couches, their faces appearing newly-cleaned.

“What are you up to?” Five questioned, staring at the scene for another moment before he reached around me and flicked the lights back off.

“Okay.” I laughed, not out of amusement, but because I was in a slight state of shock. “So clearly, mannequin companionship runs in the family.” Five glared up at me, but I just shrugged. “Don’t look at me like that. It was such a clear shot.”

He elected not to respond, and instead brushed past and wandered further down the hall. As expected, most of the doors remained locked, their secrets just barely alluding our grasp; Five couldn’t jump inside because he didn’t know what the rooms looked like, meaning we were shit out of luck. I was just about ready to call this a lost cause and turn back, when Five turned the last handle at the end of the hall, and the door swung open. One lamp had been left on, casting large shadows against _more_ mannequins, these ones set up around a table. It almost looked like a studio set, complete with a camera aimed right at the stone-still subjects.

While I got a closer look at the strange setup right in front of us, Five made his way over to a desk just out of view, littered with different file folders and papers. The shuffling and fluttering made for an oddly comforting tune to accompany an otherwise unsettling scenario. Though, admittedly, the attention to detail was impressive. Most interesting, at least to me, was the set of cloth napkins next to the pristine, white mugs, each embroidered with a tiny, red sparrow in the corner.

“Mina.” I took quick strides to my brother’s side and leaned against the desk. He held some half sheet of paper out to me, which I made sure to read over carefully.

_‘Mr. Hoyt Hillenkoetter and the Consulate General of Mexico in Dallas cordially invite you to a gala to be hosted at the Mexican Consulate on Monday, 18 th of November, 1963 at 5:00 o’clock._

I simpered as my brother folded the invitation and carefully placed it in one of the pockets on his blazer.

“I guess we’re going to a gala.”

Suddenly, something behind us clattered against metal, subconsciously causing one of my arms to shoot out in front of Five’s person. He rolled his eyes at the gesture and pushed the limb down, leading the way as we slowly crept toward the shadows, where the sound had originated. The gentle banging and clanging continued until we got close enough to spot the tall, complex cage just barely hidden from view.

This had to be…

Before I could finish my thought, a chimpanzee, no older than one, timidly emerged from the shadows, looking up at us with big, curious eyes. His steps were timid, afraid to come to close to the strangers he had yet to know.

My hands began to tremble as I looked down at the little baby limping closer. The bitter sting in my chest punched at my lungs, causing my breath to come out strained. I couldn’t go near Pogo—there wasn’t a scenario I could see where that played out well—but just seeing him alive was enough for now. He wasn’t the same Pogo that took care of and checked on us at night when the terrors set in, yet I felt entirely indebted to him.

Unfortunately, Five seemed to completely forget this was a past Pogo, though I completely understood where he was coming from. He slowly crouched down and held his arms out, as though waiting for Pogo to hug him.

“Hey,” he whispered, his voice breaking slightly. “It’s all right, little buddy. Pogo, it’s good to see you.” The closer he got, the more my protective side started to ramp up.

“Five, be careful,” I cautioned. He reached on of his arms out a little further, and I stuck out a hand, as though that would somehow stop him. “Five! He doesn’t—“

Pogo suddenly swiped his claws, scratching Five’s neck, before he let out a loud screech and made a break for one of the windows, jumping through and shattering it without a second thought. This was unraveling alarmingly fast, and if one of us didn’t try to go get him back in here, Dad would _definitely_ know someone had been here. Then again, the broken window wasn’t exactly something that could easily be covered up.

I turned on my heel and started to make a break for the window, when Five hissed in pain, struggling to stand up out of shock. I couldn’t help myself, and although I knew Pogo was getting further by the second, I whipped back around and grabbed onto one of the napkins. There was a pretty fine layer of dust on it, but it would have to do for now. Just as he got back to his feet, I moved Five’s hand away from his wound and pressed the cloth against it, hopefully stopping the minimal bleeding.

“Okay, I’m going after Pogo,” I declared. “You know what to do if there’s trouble.” His nod provided me with the little bit of reassurance I needed.

I turned back around and brushed aside the little shards of glass that remained in the sill before using it to vault myself out, landing on what seemed to be a group of storage crates. The fog had increased significantly from when we arrived, making it difficult to see even a few feet in front of my face. I started by checking behind crates and around corners, but to no avail. Hesitantly, I decided to call out for Pogo, hoping that maybe he’d respond to his name and just, for a moment, forget the fact it was coming from an unfamiliar voice.

When I rounded the corner, I found myself in what looked like an underground storage facility. Slats of light shone through crumbling wooden beams, coated in slick, slimy moss and mold. Suffice it to say, I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I shouted Pogo’s name a couple more times, and almost turned around and left, when my eyes fell on a figure collapsed on the ground, gasping and soaking in a pool of their own blood.

I gasped as my eyes adjusted, revealing the fool to be Diego. I could feel panic pushing its way up my throat as I sprinted over to him, tripping over my feet a couple of times, and crouched down, propping him up slightly to keep the blood from flowing up and causing him to choke. He was just barely conscious, enough to keep his eyes open, but not to register I was with him.

“Diego!” I panted, desperately shaking him as though that would somehow help. “Just hold on. You’re going to be okay.” I tried my best to lift him up, but he proved to be just a bit too heavy, especially in my admittedly frazzled state. “Five!” I screamed, unafraid of whomever might hear. “Five!”

I breathed a tiny sigh of relief as a set of footsteps approached, but when I looked up, that fizzled out into confusion. Lila knelt down across from me, assessing Diego’s wound with her eyes before they flashed back up to my face.

“You take his ankles; I’ve got his shoulders. We’ll lift on my count.” I remained on the floor, attempting to process everything as she got up to her feet and wrapped her arms around each of Diego’s shoulders.

“Lila, what the hell are you doing here?”

“Do you want to make small talk, or do you want to save your brother?” Her sudden hostility caught me off-guard, but she made a good point: every second counted, and if we didn’t get back soon, Diego might not make it back.

“Okay, okay.” I managed to squat and took him by his ankles, making sure my grip was firm. “

“All right. One… Two… Three.”

I violently yanked my arms up, managing to get Diego up off the ground. My limbs began to shake, but I couldn’t just give up. Though I felt like he was slipping at several points, we managed to get him into the back of the car without an incident. Once he was laid down across the back seat, I snatched the keys from his pocket, but right as I was about to jump in, I remembered a very important factor in this scenario I’d completely neglected the last few minutes.

“Mina!” Lila shouted, leaning over to stick her head out the broken window—which she’d apparently done herself. “Come on, we have to go!”

“No, I have to go back for Five,” I insisted. “I just have to go get him, I’ll be right back.”

“There’s no time!” she shot back. “Your brother will be fine. We’ve got to focus on saving this one.”

Words got caught in my throat for a moment. The thought of leaving my little brother behind and risking losing him _yet_ again…

“Mina, we have to _go_.”

Reluctantly, I slid into the driver’s seat and started the car, speeding off the second I could.


	7. Meaningful Conversations Over Stab Wounds

Diego’s screams and Lila’s dissuasions barely registered in my mind as I darted across the floor, eyes trained to the stained and crusty carpet. When we rushed Diego back up here, I’d tried to insist on helping treat the wound, primarily as a means of distraction, but I’d proved to be too frantic to even open the sleeve the gauze was held in, so Lila swooped in and took over, leaving my mind to race. We’d been back for quite a while at this point, and there was still no sign of Five, causing my stomach to lurch.

I genuinely remained torn between whether I did the right thing or not. Obviously, saving a life, and Diego’s life at that, took precedence over someone that had a few scratch marks, but the mere realization that I had left Five behind—a person I mentally promised I’d do my best not to lose again—chopped up my breaths into little fragments. Did he even know we’d left, or was he still waiting for us? Did Dad go back and find him, and…

I shook my head, trying my best to cast away the worst-case scenarios that brewed.

“What happened?” I heard Diego groan, his eyes fully open and bouncing around. I stopped just for a moment to glance at him before resuming my slightly comforting movements.

“I found you collapsed on the ground with a stab wound on your abdomen,” I explained, my voice trembling. I was already on edge, and the image of Diego splayed out on the ground, slowly getting soaked in dark red liquid certainly didn’t help with my nerves. “Lila helped me get you back here.”

For the first time since we left, I circled back to my previous confusion. It most certainly wasn’t a coincidence Lila just happened to show up at the right place, meaning she definitely came after us.

“Were you following us?” I asked, halting my steps so quickly I stumbled a bit.

“Uh, hey, how about a little gratitude,” Lila shot back. “If it wasn’t for me, he’d be dead.” She turned her attention to Diego momentarily. “That’s twice now, by the way.” Her set of forceps clinked against the tweezers, which somehow seemed to snap Diego completely awake.

“Where are my clothes?” he demanded. “The hell are my clothes?” He attempted to sit up, starting to grow restless, but Lila wasn’t having it.

“I said, don’t move!” When Diego wouldn’t calm down, she pressed whatever she was using to cauterize his wound deep into it, causing him to cry out before collapsing again, his eyelids fluttering shut. “There, that’s better.”

The sound of energy whooshing causing me to spin around on my heel, eyes wide with hope. Sure enough, there stood the youngest member of our family, expression no more miffed than it normally was. The adrenaline crashed down fast, forcing me to sink down into the chair perched on my right.

“Oh, thank God,” I breathed, my hands slowly dragging down my face. Five cast his eyes to me for a moment, but quickly redirected them over to Diego, who had fallen unconscious again.

“Oh. He isn’t dead,” was all he said upon returning.

“Disappointed?” Lila taunted, a mischievous grin illuminating her face.

“Oh, to see you? Always,” Five quipped. My senses quickly came back to me, and I sat up straight, casting my brother a glare.

“Five,” I cautioned, though I didn’t really feel like I had the right to reprimand after leaving him behind.

“So much hostility in such a tiny package. Did you cut yourself shaving?” Five pressed a spare sheet of gauze to the three scratch marks on his neck, but thankfully, no blood soaked through. “I could teach you to shave like big boy.”

“No, I just ran into an old family friend,” he sighed, glancing down at the gauze to check for any lingering drops of red liquid.

A snore from behind Five caused him to step aside, revealing Elliott passed out in the chair we’d left him in, still held down by all the bonds Diego had tied.

“You didn’t untie him?” I raised an eyebrow, casting a confused glance at Lila.

“Was I supposed to?” She didn’t sound the least bit sorry, but I shrugged it off for now.

Confident the bleeding had stopped, Five made his way over to Elliott and set him free, then proceeded to shake him until he woke up. He appeared confused for a moment, but after a while, he just eased right back into the way he was when I first met him, taking the time to fix himself another bowl of cereal.

Realizing I had my chance, I got up from the chair, and, ignoring the shaking in my legs, made my way over and set a hand on Five’s shoulder. He remained with his back facing me for another moment, then turned and cast his eyes up to mine. A thousand different apologies and explanations ran through my head and tried to force themselves out of my mouth at the same time, causing me to freeze up; it was as though I could genuinely feel the wheels in my brain getting stuck against each other. A few stutters and choked sobs got out, but other than that, we just stood there in an awkward silence.

Five seemed to catch on to what I was trying to say, and in a rare moment of letting his guard down, he moved my arm and pulled me into a hug, which I eventually was able to return. There was something so indescribably reassuring about it—providing that last little bit of confirmation that he was here, alive, and mostly well. The scratch marks would go away soon.

“I’m so sorry I left you behind,” I finally whispered. “When I found Diego, I panicked, and then Lila showed up and started ushering me away, and I just…” I took a breath, attempting to calm myself. “I promise I didn’t do it on purpose. I… I got scared.”

“I know,” Five assured me, a tiny smile inching its way onto his face. “You did what you had to.” I laughed a little at the words so commonly thrown between the two of us over the years, when an idea popped into my head.

Quickly, I moved away and started to rummage through Elliott’s cabinets, until I got my hands on two of the three items I’d been looking for. I could see Five attempting to peek over my shoulder every now and then, so I pressed the jar and bag I’d procured against my chest as I practically sprinted over to the fridge and removed the loaf of bread resting inside. By now, I was sure he caught on to what I was doing, but I appreciated his patience as I slathered everything together as quickly as possible, creating two—very messy—peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches.

“Would you accept a peace offering… even though I already apologized?”

I held one of the plates out to Five, which he gladly took, and we both plopped ourselves down at the little table Elliott had set up in his kitchen. I’d only taken one bite, but the globs of peanut butter and dense marshmallows were already practically gluing my mouth shut.

“Hold, please,” I managed to say, holding up my pointer finger as I scrambled for a couple glasses and the carton of milk. I could have sworn, somewhere in that mess, I heard my brother let out the _tiniest_ laugh, but it could have just been my imagination. “Jesus, I forgot how rich these things are when they’re made right.”

“They’re definitely filling,” Five admitted. “Perfect for a midnight snack.”

“All we’re missing is a deck of cards. Although… I am way too drained to focus on any sort of game right now.” My brother’s eyes started to glaze over again as he chewed, prompting me to lean over slightly, falling into his line of vision. “You okay, kid?”

“Hm?” He shook his head, bringing himself back to reality.

“You’re trying to think through something,” I stated. “Your eyes always move to the right when that happens.” Though he scoffed, I still managed to make Five smile.

“Doomsday is coming in eight days, we’re still missing four of us,” he sighed, setting the second half of his sandwich down, “and I still have no clues as to why it happens.”

It certainly wasn’t as dire as the first time around, but that didn’t make any of the circumstances less foreboding. In a sense, stopping the end of the world was what Five lived for, but this sort of thing took time, and he never really had much patience.

“Hey, we’re going to figure this out.” For now, it was just a nicety—something I said to put his mind at ease. But I wasn’t just going to let it stay at that. “You said you know where Luther is, right?” He nodded, finally picking the snack back up to take another bite. “Maybe he’s found some of the others. At the very least, he probably knows where Allison is.” Five seemed no more reassured, so I reached out and lightly squeezed his forearm. “And, if nothing else, you’ve got me. And I know I’m just one person, but I’m always going to try my best to be your biggest supporter. Whatever you need me to do—within reason—I’ll do it.” Five hesitated again, likely trying to find the right words, before speaking.

“We can’t stop it unless we’re all here. And all we can do about that right now is wait.”

I chose not to say anything about it, but I knew deep down, he also just wanted to see his family again. It was pretty clear to me that a large part of always chasing the apocalypse was because he just wanted his family to be safe, but none of us would catch him _dead_ admitting that out loud. Maybe it was just obvious to me because we were blood, but I read him like an open book written for _very_ dumb children.

“Well then, we’ll wait.”

Eventually, Five got up from the table and went to go check on Elliott, leaving me on my own. My eyes drifted around the strange dentist/television sales hybrid of a residence, still not really clear on which one had been Elliott’s career. He seemed far too unstable to be a dentist, but then again, he also didn’t really appear to have the people skills necessary to sell televisions. Of course, we didn’t know him before recently, so maybe he’d changed a lot.

As my eyes moved over the living room, I spotted Lila sitting in the cushioned chair, picking at the polish on her nails. I’d said I wanted to get to know her better, and now was a pretty good opportunity to do just that. Taking care not to seem to eager, I got up from my seat at the table and wandered over to her, moving one of the cushioned chairs so I could be a little closer. Once I plopped myself down, she moved her attention to me, offering me that heartwarming smile.

“Your brother’s a bit of a shit sometimes,” she whispered, her eyes darting around to make sure she wouldn’t be overheard.

“Which one?” I joked, causing her to chuckle. “Yeah, Five’s not exactly the warmest person, but, believe it or not, he cares a hell of a lot about his family. Even those of us that don’t really seem to listen.” Luther appeared in my mind, and for a second, I felt a pang of sadness.

“Speaking of which… Diego said there’s eight of you?” Lila’s eyes widened, mystified, as I nodded. “That must have been dreadful.”

“Actually, it wasn’t all that bad,” I shrugged, surprised at myself. “Five and I usually spent most of our time together, since he’s technically my real brother, but I had others to lean on when I needed them.” I expected Lila to cut in with something else, but she just continued to smile at me, silently encouraging me to keep going. “Some nights, once we knew our dad was asleep, Five, our brothers Klaus and Ben and myself would sneak out to this donut place in town called Griddy’s and just eat… usually until one of us puked.” I found myself laughing as I spoke. “Sometimes, when I just needed a break, I’d go into our sister Vanya’s room and listen to her practice violin for a while. And I’d even find myself hanging out with Diego, or Luther, or Allison when I really needed different company.”

For a while, I’d gotten lost in the little slivers of light in our childhood, but the shadows always came back, and without a second thought, I launched into some _far_ more personal information.

“But then Five went missing, and I started to pull away because I just blamed myself and didn’t know how to deal with it, and then Ben died, and… those of us remaining just didn’t feel like there was much reason to stick around longer than we needed to. By the time we all started to move out, we’d all become so apathetic or angry at each other that we stopped talking. It wasn’t until Five came home that I started to ease back into my old self.”

The swirling memories finally started to die down, leaving me feeling guilty as I offered Lila a sheepish smile.

“Sorry, I feel like I’ve just been talking about myself.”

“I don’t mind,” Lila shrugged. “It’s nice to hear at least a few positive things about your family.” I rolled my eyes a little, unsure of what I expected from Diego.

“What about your family?” I inquired, moving to match Lila’s posture. “I’d assume you grew up in a smaller household?” Her eyes shifted downward for a moment, as though trying to process something, before they met mine again.

“Significantly.” Despite her expression a moment ago, she still managed to laugh. “My parents… they died when I was little, so another woman took me in.” I sucked in a quick breath, suddenly regretting that I had asked. 

“Lila, I’m so sorry,” I quickly apologized. “I didn’t know—“

“No, Mina, it’s okay,” she assured me. “It happened a long time ago.” I nodded, encouraging her to go on. “My mum wasn’t exactly the most conventional woman in the world, but she helped me through all the biggest parts of my life.” The warm smile returned to her face once again. “When I came out to her, I didn’t know how she was going to react because, you know… people around here aren’t exactly the most accepting of… someone like me. But once I got the words out, she scooped me up into a big hug and told me it didn’t matter to her who I loved, and that she still loved me just as much as she did before I told her. I got lucky. Nothing else seemed to bother her, either. I’d see and hear things that felt so real to me, and she’d always be the one to calm me down.” I raised an eyebrow, the glaring issue catching my attention.

“Then—if you don’t want to talk about this, that’s totally okay—how did you end up in the sanatorium?”

“Neighbors kept talking in her ear, and it got to her.” Strangely, the question didn’t seem to affect Lila at all. In fact, she barely missed a beat. Still, there were more important things to be said. Taking a leap of faith, I reached over and brushed away a couple of stray tears that slipped out of her eyes.

“Well, if it’s any consolation… I don’t think you’re any stranger than every other person on this planet.” I thought back on her story a moment, and an issue of my own past came swimming back. “I never told my dad I’m gay,” I admitted. “He’s such an old fashioned man… I was afraid of how he’d react. So, the first person I came out to was Five, and honestly, I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, and I didn’t even know the term ‘lesbian’ back then, so I may or may not have just said ‘I like girls’ really quickly, and then ended the sentence there.” Both Lila and I broke down laughing, recognizing the humor of the moment. “But when the awkwardness passed, he just hugged me for a really long time and said he still loved me. Pretty much the same thing happened with the rest of my siblings.

“I got lucky,” I acknowledged. “Sometimes, I feel bad because I know there are a lot of other people out there who don’t get the same warm, welcoming response I did, but… I can keep pushing and fighting, and that way, I’m helping them.”

Right as Lila opened her mouth to speak again, Five came stumbling into the room, his eyes filled with a new sense of hope. Though part of me felt bad, I immediately turned around and looked up at him.

“We have to go,” he stated curtly. Annoyed with his lack of curtesy, I rolled my eyes and prepared to chew him out.

“Five, I’m in the middle of a conversation,” I scoffed.

“I know where Vanya is.”

I felt my heart stop for a second, trying to fully process that Vanya had survived her apocalyptic surge and was here. Relief quickly flooded in, leaving me gasping a little bit before I shot up in my chair. Excitement had completely taken over me, but that didn’t completely eliminate the realization I was about to abandon Lila. I righted myself, turning back to face her, and sunk back down into the chair.

“Lila, I feel really bad, but I—“

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about, Mina.” She laughed before reaching out and grabbing my hand for a second, providing a comforting warmth. “Go find your sister.” 

With that last little bit of reassurance, I followed Five into Elliott’s conspiracy room, finding him sitting in front of a few monitors. One of them was lit up, showing what looked to be a swirling pattern on a radar.

“What exactly am I looking at?” I asked, turning my eyes back to my brother.

“Sound waves,” he answered with a slightly giddy smile. “I can’t jump there, but based on the coordinates, if we go now, we should be able to get to her by morning.”

The solution had been presented right to me, probably because Five had already thought about that before he came over to get me. Elliott even had a pen and a pad of paper ready for me. I scribbled down the coordinates displayed on the screen, assuming I could probably match them with some sort of map that was most likely in the car. After double-checking they were correct, I slipped the piece of paper into my pocket and turned to Five.

“Let’s go get our sister.”


	8. Wiped Clean

“Five?”

I rubbed my eyes, trying to push away the tiredness threatening to creep in, then directed my attention to my brother in the passenger seat. He’d pretty much passed out the moment we got on the road, and managed to stay that way even now. Though I wanted to let him sleep, he was possibly more excited about finding Vanya than I was, so I’d feel bad if I went to go get her without him.

“Five.” I reached over and started to shake him, bringing him back to consciousness. He looked around, trying to get his bearings, before noticing the blanket falling from around his shoulders.

“When did that get there?” he asked groggily, still attempting to sit up straight,

“We had to stop for gas in the middle of the night, and since one of the windows is broken, I was worried about you getting cold,” I explained. “I found that in the back while we were stopped, so I put it over you to make sure you stayed warm.”

“Thanks,” Five muttered, offering just the faintest hint of a smile. “Now, let’s go find Vanya.”

“Hell yeah,” I cheered, pushing open the door on my side of the car.

The coordinates had led us to a corn field out in the middle of nowhere. The last town we’d passed was about twenty minutes from here, and as far as I could tell, there weren’t any homes nearby. I started to wonder how Vanya ended up here, until my eyes fell on a brown station wagon, nestled among some bushes on the side of the road. It didn’t look like it had been crashed, despite the fact the back windshield was completely blown out, but instead, like it had been run off the road. The driver’s side door remained open, likely indicating Vanya had booked it… and then, somewhere along the way, she felt like she had to use her powers.

As I ran my hands along the vehicle, I noticed little, round indents at several points on the back and sides of the car—marks I’d seen a few times before.

“Hey, Five?” I called back, summoning him over. “Are those—“

“—bullet marks,” he finished. The longer he stared at them, the wider his eyes got, which was never a good sign.

“You planning on clueing me in here, or am I just supposed to draw my own conclusions?” He ran a hand through his hair—his sign of mental distress—then turned and looked up at me.

“The Commission’s after us.”

I groaned and covered my eyes, annoyed more than anything else.

“I’m sorry—and you know this, how, exactly?”

“After Hazel brought me back ten days before the doomsday, they came after us. They’re… the ones that killed him.” I felt a pang of sympathy in my heart as Five swallowed, the event clearly affecting him more than he let on.

“But why? Don’t they ever let up?”

“Well, we’re in the wrong time.” Five’s voice was quiet, as though he feared the Commission’s assassins were right around the corner. “And in their eyes, the easiest way to make the timeline right is to kill the person—or in this case, people—that are causing problems.”

“Do you know the people they sent?” Part of me was afraid of the answer, but if my family was being threatened, I needed to know what we were up against.

“Not personally, but they made their rounds the last few years I worked there. They’re three brothers, known only as The Swedes.” Five shrugged casually. “They don’t get dispatched all that often because they don’t have the best accuracy, so if the Commission sent them after us, then, for whatever reason, they don’t see us as much of a threat.” I shook my head, laughing despite the situation.

“I’d be more offended, if that didn’t mean we have one less thing to stress over.” I turned back to face the corn field. “If Vanya was running from them, that looks like a good place to hide. Not to mention, that’s where the coordinates led us. We’ve just got to keep an eye out.” Right before we disappeared inside, I grabbed Five’s arm and yanked him back. “And stick together, just in case those guys are still in there.”

The rising sunlight cast shimmers over the dew drops sticking to the leaves on the corn stalks, almost giving the field a fantastical appeal. Of course, every time one of us pushed a plant aside, the water splattered onto us, which made for a less pleasant experience. I never pictured us searching through a corn field to find our sister, but at least we had a lead.

A burning smell suddenly overwhelmed my nostrils and caused me to gag a little. Considering how strong it was, and the fact it only got worse the further in Five and I trekked, we had to be close to something. Sure enough, we pushed through one last set of stalks and emerged into a _giant_ circular clearing. The corn in it had been completely flattened down, as though it had been steam-rolled over, and dead in the center of everything was a smoldering dent, not too dissimilar from the impact sight of a meteor.

Except, this couldn’t have been caused by a meteor.

“Vanya,” Five and I breathed. After stealing a quick glance at each other, we made our way around the edge of the clearing, trying to find any sign of our sister. I hadn’t been searching that long, when Five called out to me as quietly as possible

“Mina.”

I turned on my heel and headed in his direction, following his point through the stalks. Crouched down, in the middle of the field, was a brown-haired woman in a light blue jacket, her gaze bouncing around warily.

My heart swelled in my chest, and without hesitation, the two of us pushed through until we were right by her. Both of us offered warm smiles, thankful that our sister was alive.

But the way she looked back at us… her eyes seemed vacant.

“Hi, Vanya,” Five greeted. She got up from her place on the ground, but continued to stare at us with apprehension.

“Who are you?” Her voice was quiet, just as I had remembered it, and I got so caught up in the joy of finding her that her question didn’t register at first.

She didn’t recognize us…?

“I’m your brother.” Somehow, Five seemed completely unaffected, as though he expected this. Both of them looked to me, bringing me out of my confusion.

“Uh, I’m your sister.” That didn’t seem to spark anything.

“I have siblings?” Five made a bit of a show of looking around us, trying to bring her attention to where we were.

“Look, you can either stay here and wait for the IKEA mafia to come back to kill you, or you can come with us.” Though Vanya still seemed confused, she started to follow behind Five and I as we made our way back toward where we’d parked.

“Why… Why are they trying to kill me?” she asked, keeping a close distance between her and I.

“’Cause you’re not supposed to be here.”

“In Dallas?” As I walked, I turned my torso so I could look back at her.

“No. Here, in 1963.” If Five could just casually drop bombs, I didn’t see why I couldn’t, too. Besides, it was pretty clear Vanya’s memory wasn’t quite with her, and if we wanted her to be kept safe, we’d need to fill her in as much as possible.

When we reached the clearing she’d created, Vanya stared at the smoldering spot where she had most likely been when she used her powers, then began to gawk at the sheer amount of corn she managed to level.

“Holy shit,” she marveled.

“Yeah, pretty wild, right?” The enthusiasm in Five’s voice quickly spread to me, causing me to smile at Vanya for what felt like the millionth time since we’d found her. “It’s good to see your powers are still intact. Let’s go.”

Vanya stayed to assess what she’d done for another moment, then picked up her pace and caught up with Five and I, allowing us to lead her out of the cornfield. Once we were free from the scratchy prison, Five climbed into the passenger seat of our car, and I leaned against my door, crossing my arms against my chest.

“You feeling up to driving?” I couldn’t quite pin the expression that fell over her face, which alarmed me. Vanya really had been wiped clean, and in her place was a shell of the sister I had loved. “I mean, if you don’t, you can totally come with Five and I. I just figured you’d want your car with you.” I gestured my head toward the damaged station wagon resting in the foliage.

“Yeah, yeah.” Vanya shook her head, her words coming out haltingly. “Sorry, where are we going?” I pointed to Five, who had already secured himself in the passenger side of the car.

“If this one doesn’t get coffee in him soon, there’s a chance he might kill someone.” Though I laughed when I said that, deep down, I knew there was some truth to the statement. “I saw a diner about 20 minutes out from here, in that town?”

“Oh, yeah.” Finally, her eyes lit up with familiarity. “I go there sometimes with my charge and his mom. I’ll meet you guys there.”

Before I could get in another word, she bounded over to her car and tried her best to pull out of the ditch, leaving me to just get into my own and follow after her. She said she had a charge, which meant… Vanya was a nanny? Strangely, I could see that. She had always been so gentle, despite the recent outburst of emotion (though that was long-coming and well deserved).

With a grin painted on my face, I started the car and pulled away from the looming plants, eager to spend more time with my sister.


	9. Opposite Approaches

Trees and lines on the road flew by us as I caravanned behind Vanya, casting glances at Five every now and then. He’d propped one elbow against the console on his door’s panel, his eyes absentmindedly trained out the window. I knew this conversation might upset him, but it was important to talk about the elephant in the room before we got to our meeting location.

“So, she doesn’t seem to remember anything,” I sighed, removing one of my hands from the steering wheel.

“Well, the event she caused was pretty traumatic.” I could tell he was trying his best to keep up his normal demeanor. “It’s entirely possible it could have wiped her memory, given that was the first time she used her powers since we were little.”

“’Were’? You still _are_.” He turned to glare at me. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” Five just shook his head and went back to looking out the window. “It’s interesting she remembers her name, but not her family. I mean, her name is a pretty basic thing about her, but you’d think we’d be deep enough in there that she’d at least remember she had siblings.”

“Where, exactly, are you going with this?” Five snapped, his shoulders tensing.

“Five,” I shot back, my voice rising into the warning octave I hadn’t learned to turn off. “I’m just trying to think things through, that’s all.” He deflated again, leaving me feeling a deep-settled guilt. “I know it’s hard to see Vanya like this. Trust me. But she’s got a life now. I think she’s a nanny, and when she mentioned the kid she watches, she got excited immediately. We should at least be happy about that, right?” Five just shrugged.

“I guess.”

Silence created a barrier between us all the way to the diner, but once we climbed out of the car and met up with Vanya again at the diner counter, it seemed to crumble down. Five sat between Vanya and I, his leg bouncing slightly as a waitress delivered menus to us.

“You going to get any food, Five?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low.

“Probably just coffee. You?” An idea popped into my head, and I smirked.

“Oh yeah. Four fried chickens, some dry, white toast, and a coke.”

There was silence as I continued to read the menu, and when I looked up, Five and Vanya were staring at me with slightly slack jaws and furrowed brows, unsure of how to really respond.

Shame.

“Guess that was a pretty poorly placed reference,” I shrugged. “Not a lot of people tend to know it. In all seriousness, I’m just going to get tea, then I’ll eat something at Elliott’s.”

“As long as you eat.” He turned away before he could see it, but I smiled down at Five, feeling the comfort of knowing we were looking out for each other.

Right then, the waitress came around and asked for our orders, a coffee pot in her hand. Five looked as though he were about to start salivating right there, causing me to chuckle. The waitress, who appeared to be in her 60s, poured Vanya and Five their mugs, and right when it seemed like she was going to walk away, Five reached his hand out.

“Leave the pot, dear.” Though I’m sure that sounded fine in Five’s mind, the waitress rolled her eyes.  
  
“Lippy little shit,” she murmured as she walked away to grab the boiling water and their limited tea selection. I didn’t have to dig through much, settling on just a basic green for now.

“You gonna tell me what the hell is going on?” Vanya’s words came off as agitated, but I figured she probably wanted to get back to her charge… which, unfortunately, was going to take a lot longer than she probably assumed.

As I took a sip from my mug, Five swiveled his chair slightly, facing me.

“You want to take this, or should I?” he asked lowly. My eyes flitted up to Vanya for a moment, then back down to my brother.

“I’ve got this.” I gently set my mug down while Five turned back around, then leaned over slightly so I could better look at Vanya. “When you were a baby, you were bought by an eccentric billionaire. He raised you in an elite academy with seven other siblings with extraordinary powers…”

“…but in the year 2019,” Five cut in, “in order to avoid the apocalypse, we jumped into a vortex and ended up being scattered throughout the timeline in Dallas, Texas.” Vanya remained completely silent following the explanation, her eyes darting across the counter as she attempted to process. “Any questions?”

“What do you mean by ‘the apocalypse’?” Of all the points she could have focused on, that was a pretty reasonable one to start with.

“I mean the end of the world as we know it.” It didn’t really seem to need clarification, but given Vanya only seemed to remember things that happened in the last month—based on when Elliott’s picture of her had been taken—the apocalypse likely wasn’t a concept introduced yet.

“Yeah, but how?”

Five’s head jutted back slightly, genuinely surprised by the fact she didn’t even remember causing the apocalypse. What he said in the car seemed plausible, but this showed me he didn’t actually believe it to be true—or maybe he just didn’t want it to be.

“You really don’t remember anything?” I found the words for him.

“No,” Vanya answered, trying her best to look past Five, “nothing before a month ago.”

“Then what do you remember?” Maybe we could try and coax something buried deep in storage out. Vanya stuttered for a bit, trying to collect her thoughts.

“I landed in, like, a… back alley. Got hit by a car. My head was ringing like crazy.” She squeezed her eyes shut, like she could still feel the pain. “I had no idea how I got there, where I came from.” The second her explanation was over, she switched gears. “What caused the apocalypse?”

I caught Five looking to me again, and as subtly as possible, I shook my head. Maybe it was better if, for the time being, she didn’t know what she had done. She still seemed pretty vulnerable, and if she found out it was essentially her fault, I worried about what she might do.

“Asteroid impact.” I grimaced slightly as Five looked away from her. Vanya was no idiot, and I could tell based on the way her face shifted, she knew we were keeping details close to the vest. “The big kaboom ends everything. Just like the one that got the dinosaurs, except way worse. Bad news is, it followed us here.”

Vanya’s jaw fell again, just enough to indicate her shock. Part of me felt bad, dropping so much on her at once. Considering everything about this was completely new information, and most of it was likely unbelievable, she’d probably had a thousand more inquiries lined up. But Five’s urgency to stop the end of the world took precedence.

“What do you mean, ‘followed us’?” This time, Five didn’t hesitate.

“Eight days from now, the world ends in a nuclear doomsday. It’s the different disease, but… same result.”

Vanya’s lips curled into a smile, purely out of shock.

“That can’t be right,” she denied, laughing slightly.

“I saw it. With my own eyes.” As Five’s voice broke, he took a sudden and profound interest in staring at his coffee cup. “You were there. We all were.” I watched as he began to tremble with the demons clawing their way free in his memory. It felt like someone directly struck my lungs, knocking the air out of them, and without a second thought, I reached over and draped my arm over the back of his chair, setting a supportive hand on his back.

“Shit.” Vanya set her mug down and pushed away from the counter, bouncing with urgency. “I need to make a phone call.”

“Vanya.”

“Let her go,” I whispered. “She took off in the middle of the night, and hasn’t had the chance to call that family she works for. They probably think she’s lost, or worse.”

Reluctantly, Five caved and went back to sipping his coffee. The two of us sat there for a while, unsure of how to resume conversation, until something from earlier started biting at my brain, begging for some attention.

“Hey.” Both of us set our mugs down at the same time, causing us to laugh. “Uh, earlier, when we were back at Elliott’s, you snapped at Lila.” My mouth started to move silently as I attempted to put together the next part of this. “Do you not like her?”

Five sighed through his nostrils, his eyes falling down to his hands. It was pretty clear to me he wasn’t really willing to share his opinion, but he knew me well enough to understand I wasn’t going to let up until I got an answer. He was probably just trying to find kinder words than what he was thinking.

“I know you like her,” he suspired, finally looking up at me again. “And, from what I’ve seen… she probably likes you, too. If she makes you happy, then that’s what’s important.”

I resisted the urge to call bullshit, and instead squeezed his shoulder.

“Five, you know the most important thing to me is my family. What all of you think of the people I may or may not date matters _immensely_ to me; and out of all of their very loud opinions… yours is the one that matters most to me.”

He still held back whatever I knew he wanted to say, but for now, I chose to let it go, especially considering we had bigger things to worry about.

Vanya kept her voice low, not allowing us to eavesdrop on her conversation. Unfortunately, that also caused Five to grow more impatient as the seconds dragged on, to the point where he had to stand up and tap his foot to keep from launching into a fit of ranting. I tried my best to keep him calm, but my efforts could only go so far, and eventually, he set his mug down with a definite ‘thud’ and stormed over to Vanya, smashing his finger against the receiver to hang up. I rushed over and stood behind him, hoping to catch him if he completely started to lose his shit.

“What the hell?” Vanya demanded, still trying to keep her shouts from reaching the other patrons.

“We don’t have time for this,” Five snapped.

“That’s my friend you just hung up on.” Unable to empathize, Five reached out and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly.

“Listen to me. Those people from the field are coming after us. They are never going to stop. Do you understand me? We need to stick together, find the others, figure out how to stop doomsday. Whoever this person is, they can’t be more important than the end of the world.”

Vanya still seemed completely unwilling to abandon the people she had called, likely because of what Five had just said. Though the love was there, he just hadn’t conveyed it in a way that worked with Vanya. He lacked the sort of patience sometimes required with her. Hoping not to set him off, I set a hand on his shoulder and turned him around.

“Can you give us a minute?” I shifted my gaze up to Vanya, smiling at her.

“Mina, you can’t be serious.” I rolled my eyes and took in a deep breath, attempting to calm myself. 

“Just… please?” Something about the way I looked at him must have struck a chord in Five, because he let up pretty quickly and made his way back to the diner counter.

Once Vanya and I had been left alone, I leaned against the wall, resting my head against the cool tile. She glanced over at Five, making sure he was out of earshot, before she turned back to me, her expression indignant.

“Is he always that much of an asshole?” I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“80 percent of the time, yeah,” I admitted. “He’s always had a pretty short fuse.” I cleared my throat and uncrossed my arms, trying to bring the subconscious barrier down. “But, the other 20 percent of the time, he’s still a scared kid. I think, maybe, I see it more than the others because I’m his biological sister, but I know it pokes out around everyone on occasion.”

“You two are biological?” Vanya bounced her eyes between Five and I, assessing our faces carefully. “Actually, I see it.” She smiled at me, shaking her head a little. “You just seem so different.”

“Well, we have different approaches to life, that’s for sure—but believe it or not, both of us care about our family more than anything. Five may have a weird way of demonstrating it, but he’s just focused on the mission he’s set for himself so he can protect his family. It took me a little bit to figure that out, but it makes it a lot easier to tolerate it when he starts getting snippy. Then again, Diego’s always said I had better patience when it came to Five than the rest of you.”

“Diego?” For a moment, I’d forgotten I wasn’t talking to the same Vanya I’d known my whole life.

“Oh, uh, Diego’s one of our brothers. You’ll meet him soon.” That served as a perfect segue. “Five wants to stop the end of the world so he can save us, but we can’t do that unless all of us are together. So, is there any way I could persuade you to come back with us?”

Thankfully, I managed to get through to her, and she nodded.

“Good. Let’s get out of here.” I slung an arm around her shoulder, guiding her over toward our brother.

Five smiled at the two of us as we approached, and once I set money down on the counter, we headed out toward our cars.

“Are we headed back to Elliott’s?” I asked, moving some of my hair behind my ear as a light breeze dangled it in front of my face.

“We have one more of us to get for today,” Five reported as he opened his door. “I can give Mina the directions if you want to follow?” Vanya nodded. “It’s a bit of a drive, but we’ll be back—and hopefully, all together—by tomorrow.”

The promise of that filled me with a sort of giddy anticipation, causing me to practically jump into the car. I couldn’t wait to see all my siblings together again… even the ones I hadn’t gotten along super well with.

It would just be nice to all be in the same room again.

**_\- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - --_ **

**_Dude, if_ anyone _gets that ‘four fried chickens’ reference, you will make my entire week_**


	10. The Beauty Among the Chaos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m only putting one chapter out today, but it’s a MAJOR one, so I hope it’ll suffice :) I publish chapters based on how well I think the flow of the story will go, and I think this chapter works best published on its own.  
>  Also, there’s some suggestiveness at the end of the chapter, just as a heads up. Idk how old y’all are, so I just wanted to put that out there.

The foul, bitter stench of sweat shoved itself into my nostrils as Five, Vanya, and I entered the barn, greeted immediately with jeers and cries of praise. I kept close to my sister, but I couldn’t draw my eyes away from the lumbering figures in the center of the ring. I’d never been the sort of person to enjoy fights— a fact completely ironic, and I was aware of that—but there was something compelling about this one in particular. Luther, one of the two fighters, almost looked as though he was pulling his punches in a few places, like he was letting the other man win.

Five tugged on my arm and pointed toward the rippling crowd, waiting for me to go through before he shut the door behind him. The three of us had to crouch down in order to get close enough, and we were pressed right up against the bars. Sweat splattered down on our heads in perfect time with the shouts and jumps of the overwhelmingly male spectators. Drinks spilled out from bottles and onto the floor, the droplets getting soaked up by hay not but a few seconds later. The screams felt as though they were pressing down on my head, forcing themselves into my ears and threatening to make my head explode.

None of that mattered, though. Another one of my brothers was right within arm’s reach—something I didn’t realize I needed until this moment. Luther and I hadn’t exactly left things on the best terms, so I hoped he’d be willing to acknowledge what happened and move on. Just because we often fought didn’t mean I didn’t love him, just like the rest of my family. I wondered, sometimes, if Luther thought I genuinely hated him, and that’s why he tended to avoid me. I wasn’t an idiot, I had noticed.

Being separated from everyone again, unsure if they were in Dallas, or alive, brought down an internal barrier I’d clung to for so long. I’d _despised_ Luther in our youth, and I certainly wasn’t shy about demonstrating it, even when we all got back together as adults. Our mindsets and approaches to problems just never lined up, and there definitely was some of that familial stubbornness thrown in there. I still didn’t agree with some of the things he’d done, or the decisions he made, but for God’s sake, he was my brother. When push came to shove, I’d drop everything if he needed me.

Right now, I hoped that went both ways. Otherwise, it’d take a lot more convincing to get him back with us. He’d already told Five he didn’t give a shit, but maybe Vanya or I would be able to get through to him.

The feel of the fight shifted suddenly after Luther delivered a brutal blow, knocking his opponent back. He almost gave off the illusion this thing was about to be over, when all of a sudden, he stopped dead in his tracks and began to sway slightly, as though his mind had suddenly left him. That gave his opponent enough time to recover, and when he swung his fist out and landed a hit on Luther, the latter just stood there, allowing the beating to happen. I hissed through my teeth, my shoulders tensing, but it was like a car crash—I felt so compelled to watch this whole thing go up in flames.

“Look, he’s pummeling him,” Vanya observed, bringing Five’s attention to the fact Luther wasn’t making an effort to fight.

The boos around us overlapped any cheers that may have come out of mouths. Luther’s opponent grabbed onto his head and dragged him down before throwing him against the wall we were leaning on, causing me to flinch and move back slightly.

“Oh, my God, Luther?” Five sounded like he was about to be sick.

“Why isn’t he fighting back?” I tried my best to push down the urge to shock the man, knowing that would throw the integrity of this whole thing, and possibly get Luther in more trouble than he was likely already in.

Blood started to trickle down from wounds as Luther stood completely still, taking the punches like they were just little pokes. It almost seemed like he was inviting this, as though he felt he deserved it.

“Luther, are you crazy?” Five screamed, poking his head through the bars. “Just hit him!”

My breath hitched in my throat, horrified, as Luther’s opponent wound up and struck him right under his chin, throwing him into the air before his giant bosy crashed down, nearly immobile. I winced and slammed my eyes shut, unwilling to look at first. The cacophony around me now pulsated against my mind, playing the image of the blow over and over again.

“Why didn’t he fight back?” Vanya’s words echoed as I tried to process them.

It wasn’t until the voices started to fade and the shuffling of feet had mostly died down that I dared to open my eyes again. Luther still remained still on the ground, his eyes shut. Panicked, I climbed over the railing and crouched down beside him, checking for signs of life. Thankfully, I noticed the rise and fall of his chest, indicating he was still breathing. Five and Vanya stared at me expectantly as I got back onto my feet.

“He’s alive,” I assured them. 

“Who the hell are you?”

The three of us jumped and whipped around. Our eyes landed on a tall man, most likely smack in the middle of his life, perching a dog under one arm. He leered at us, his eyes only a few steps away from shooting daggers out of them. On instinct, I threw my hands up slightly and began to stutter, floundering for such a simple response.

“Uh, we… we’re his… siblings,” I managed to squeak out. The man’s brow flew up a little higher on his forehead.

“Luther’s never mentioned siblings,” he snapped.

“Yeah, well, we’ve never been that close.” Five managed to remain completely calm as he spoke to this guy. “But now, we just want to make sure he gets home safe.”

“My guys’ll get him back,” the man interjected. The longer he looked at us, the more his expression started to soften, and after a few moments of awkward silence, he sighed. “You’ll be able to see him in the morning.”

He started to walk away, as though we were done with the conversation, but we didn’t have all the information we needed. Thankfully, I managed to find my voice in time.

“And where is it we’ll be able to see him?” I called out, causing the man to stop in his tracks and turn back to us.

“The Plano Street House for Solitary Men,” he stated bluntly. “Do you—“

“I know the place,” I nodded. With that concluded, I grabbed onto Five’s shoulder and started to guide him out, allowing Luther to be taken care of. “Thank you, Mr…” I trailed off, waiting for him to finish the sentence.

“Ruby,” he replied. “Jack Ruby.”

My eyes flew wide open as I watched the man round the corner. That was… holy shit. Maybe there was some water to Diego’s ramblings about needing to save JFK.

The moment that thought came on, I shook it away. Diego was just trying to prove himself to someone that didn’t give a shit he existed.

The muggy night air felt like a relief compared to the stale and stagnant interior of the barn. I could already tell Five wanted to jump on a plan, but for once, I just wanted him to slow down. Besides, I could already feel the fact I hadn’t slept in nearly 24 hours catching up to me, threatening to knock me over if we didn’t get back soon.

“All right,” I spoke up before Five got the chance. “I say, we head back to Elliott’s, get some rest, and the moment the sun comes up tomorrow morning, we go see Luther.” As expected, Five glared up at me, his jaw tensing.

“We don’t have time, Mina,” he barked. “The world is ending in almost seven days, and we’ve got nothing.”

“Five, Luther’s injured. He needs time to rest, otherwise, he’s useless. And we need sleep, too. I drove all last night. So, please, just let me have this one.” He didn’t agree, but he didn’t protest, either, so I took what I could get. “Vanya, you should come with us. I’m sure Elliott won’t mind.” That was a pretty big assumption on the behalf of someone I barely knew, but I was willing to risk it for my sister.

“Yeah, sure,” she agreed quietly. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” I shrugged. “Just follow us back.”

The car ride home was completely silent, and at first I thought it was because Five was cross with me, but when I looked over at the passenger side, I noticed he’d fallen asleep again. A little smirk crawled onto my face.

Once we reached Elliott’s, I made my way around to the other side of the car and picked up Five, intending to get him to bed as quickly as possible so I could do the same myself. I managed to set him down on the only bed in the entire place and head out toward the inflatable mattress that had been set up on the ground, when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned slowly to see Five standing in the doorway of the room I’d _just_ put him in, already starting to move in my direction.

“I’ll take the floor.” His words were barely audible, due to his exhaustion.

“What? No, no, Five. I really don’t mind.” I pointed toward the mattress. “It’s an upgrade from what I’m used to.” Five wouldn’t take no for an answer, and before I could protest any further, he brushed past me and plopped himself down on the inflatable bed. “Five—“

“You’ve slept on the floor for years,” he reasoned. “Just take the comfortable option this one time.”

Though I didn’t want to give in, I also knew Five had made up his mind, which meant I wasn’t going to win this argument. Reluctantly, I turned on my heel and walked into the room he’d just left, taking a heavy seat on the mattress. Not one minute had passed, when there was a knock on the door, and Lila entered, shutting it behind her.

“Who’s the chick out there?” she asked quietly, pointing out toward where my sister had sat herself down.

“Vanya,” I answered curtly, running my hands over my face. Lila hesitated before she made her way over and took a seat beside me, our shoulders pressed together. “Tomorrow morning, we have to go back for Luther, and then… somehow, we have to find Allison and Klaus.”

Saying it out loud, it seemed a lot more hopeless than I had previously made it out to be in my mind. The weight of it all felt as though it shoving me, and I flopped down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“Well, at least you’re closer. That’s better than nothing, right?” Lila shifted and laid down next to me, propping herself up on one of her elbows.

“Yeah, I guess.” I turned to my right, meeting her eyes.

“Hey, what did Five mean when he said you’d been sleeping on the floor for years? Another weird thing your dad did?” The memories that played through my head as I prepared to tell the story brought a smile to my face.

“No, no.” I paused, laughing to myself before continuing. “Sometimes, when Five and I were young, he would have these terrible nightmares that would scare the shit out of him. He couldn’t go to Dad, and at night Mom was… unavailable, so he’d come into my room since it was right across from his. When he did, I let him sleep in my bed, and I’d lay down on the floor and face my doorway, so I could watch for anything that might try to come in and get him. Now, it’s just an instinct to give him whatever bed there is while I take the floor, or a chair, and ‘stand watch’, per se.” I let out a long sigh, the smile on my lips refusing to budge. “But, also, he’s my brother. I’d sacrifice my own comfort to make sure he’s okay in a heartbeat.”

I was still running through a light in my past, when the question that had gone to rest for a while reared its head again.

“Why were you following me?” Lila’s expression went sullen as she rotated on her elbow to lay all the way down.

“I thought you were taking off on me,” she admitted with a sigh. “What people do.” Her mouth moved for a bit, as though she had something else, but eventually, it clamped shut again. I felt a pang of sympathy in my chest, worried that she might have thought I was mad at her.

“Well, if you hadn’t been there, Diego probably wouldn’t have made it. So, thank you.” She turned her head, so that we were looking at each other.

“Five wouldn’t have been able to help you?” I chuckled and shook my head.

“No. I have a lot of faith in my brother, but… there’s no way in hell he would have been able to lift Diego.” I expected her to laugh at least a little, but her face had gone completely serious again. “You okay?”

Lila remained quiet, until the confession suddenly spilled out.

“When Diego was lying there, I… I thought he was dead.” She sounded almost indifferent to that. Strange, considering they had known each other for a while. “That’s how I found my parents.” My eyes widened as she shifted her gaze away. “Face down in the living room.” I wanted to reach out as she began to tremble, but feared what would happen if I snapped her out of the trance she seemed to have fallen into. “It was a home invasion.”

I sat up and leaned against my arm, attempting to process the complete gravity of what she’d just told me. Based on our conversation earlier, she made it sound as though it was just some sort of accident that befell her parents, but this…

“Shit,” I whispered, still trying to grasp everything. “How old were you?”

“Four.” Her voice was barely audible, but I still caught the heartbreaking age. To witness something like that at a young age…

The difficulty with which she spoke made me think this wasn’t exactly something she was used to sharing, but she and Diego at least knew each other moderately well before this. Part of me wished, had he known, that I could have gotten a heads up, but at the same time, it wasn’t his story to tell.

“Does Diego know?” I asked, moving some hair from her face; it all just fell back a moment later, when she shook her head.

“I never talked about that with anyone before.”

Though the moment was filled with somber words, I couldn’t help but smile just a little bit. It felt hard to believe just a couple of days ago, Lila and I had been strangers. The trust I’d hoped to establish was definitely there, causing the typical thumping warmth to spread into a constant blanket.

“As messed up as this might sound… I’m glad you trusted me enough to tell me that.”

Something seemed to spark in Lila, and her facial expression shifted as she sat up. My heart rate spiked as she adjusted herself, bringing our faces mere inches apart. I could feel her breath dancing a waltz against my chin as her hand just barely brushed mine, causing a jolt of electricity to run down my spine.

“Is it okay that I don’t hate you like most people?” Lila’s question was completely earnest, causing me to chuckle a little. It was a glimpse into the walls completely coming down, and it only drew me closer to her.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s okay by me.” The tension grew thicker by the moment, as the two of us just sat there, staring at each other.

Screw it.

Trying to push down the shy part of me screaming to back down, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers, making the first move for once in my goddamn life.

Unfortunately, I seemed to misread the signs, as only a second after, Lila reached over and slapped me, right on my cheek. Pain rushed to the site and I immediately clapped my hand over it as shame started to crawl over me.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Lila demanded, glaring down at me.

“Shit, Lila, I’m so sorry,” I began to apologize, shaking my head. “I thought, maybe, you liked me, and so I did that. But I guess I misread things. I’m so—“

I forced myself to look up at her again, and when I did, I noticed smile on her face, barely suppressed as she bit down on her lip. My brows furrowed down as she let a tiny laugh escape.

“Mina.”

“What?” I sighed, completely lost and confused.

“You make a really cute face when you’re embarrassed.”

Before I got the chance to retort, Lila swung her legs over my torso and leaned down, placing her hands on my cheeks as she brought her lips to mine. The warmth in my chest completely enshrouded me, and through the kiss, a smile crept its way onto my face.

For a moment, I snapped back to reality, and when I realized where this was going, I drew my face away from hers and glanced toward the clouded window on one of the walls, making sure there wasn’t any movement outside.

“Everything okay?” Lila’s playfulness melted away for a moment, leaving genuine curiosity and slight concern. The world outside seemed completely still, but I just wanted to be careful.

“Yeah, just… my siblings are out there, so… keep it quiet.” She smirked as she leaned down again.

“Never,” she joked.

I hadn’t laughed that much in a long time.


	11. A Tiny, Little Hitch

The warmth pressed against my torso as sunlight forced my eyes open provided a calming sense of assurance. At some point, in the middle of the night, I had been woken up when Lila got up from the bed. Initially, I’d thought she was just using the restroom, but it wasn’t until a couple hours later that the mattress dipped again, stirring me from sleep as she wrapped her arms around my waist.

And now, I’d have to do the same thing.

With a distant sense of guilt, I gently moved Lila’s arms away and searched for my discarded clothing. I’d been wearing the same sweater and pants for quite a few days now, so I’d have to go home and change soon. But, for now, we had bigger things to worry about.

As quietly as possible, I opened the door and crept into the living room, finding all three of my siblings still completely passed out. Vanya had slumped over in the chair, her head fallen completely over her chest. Just looking at her made a sharp pain pierce my neck, causing me to reach back and rub the spot. Five, on the other hand, looked completely peaceful, hugging the blankets tight to his chest. I laughed to myself as I spotted that, recognizing that in his sleep was one of the few times Five actually looked like a kid, rather than an old man burdened with the weight of his knowledge of the future. I was almost tempted not to wake him, but I knew if I waited past when I’d promised him, there was a good chance he’d kill me.

I crouched down beside the mattress and grasped my brother’s shoulders, violently shaking him. He shot up suddenly, his flailing arms nearly missing my face. I flinched and got up to my feet, completely removing myself from the line of fire. Five’s eyes blinked with the intensity of a projector light, fervently searching the world around him for some sort of explanation as to where he was before his mind slowly came back to him, and he had the quote-unquote common sense to turn and glare at me. His jaw dropped open, about to deliver some sort of snarky comment, but I preemptively cut him off, not wanting to waste time.

“We have to go get Luther,” I stated bluntly. Vanya still slumbered behind me, unaware of what was happening over here. “Get up, come on. I told you the moment the sun came up, and I meant it.”

I took a much gentler approach with Vanya, reminding myself she couldn’t remember the lack of mincing words around here. Not to mention, I’d always felt it natural to treat her with a bit of delicacy. In our childhood, it had been because I carried a sense of empathy for her and how dad had essentially cast her aside, but now that we were adults, it was the regret I hadn’t tried as hard as I could to be close with her (though Five and I made a few efforts) and the hope that would change; in this particular moment, it was the fact she didn’t remember anything, and I worried if one of us made one wrong move, she’d use her powers again, and we’d be in deep shit.

“Hey, Vanya?” Thankfully, it only took the sound of someone’s voice to get her to open her eyes and sit up a straighter. “We should probably head out to get Luther now. Do you need anything before we go?”

“I need time to make coffee,” I heard Five grunt from behind me. I drew my focus away from Vanya for a moment and stared at him.

“Did I ask you?” He reeled his head back slightly, and I found even myself shocked at how snippy that was. “Sorry, I don’t know where that came from. We’ll be quick so you can come back and get your lifeblood for the day.”

“I can drive,” Vanya offered as she stood. I raised my eyebrows, taking note of the fact she still seemed slightly out of it.

“Are you sure? You just got up.” Still, Vanya nodded and removed the keys to her station wagon from the pocket of her jacket.

“Yeah. You’ve been driving for a while. I can take over this time. Besides, if we’re all going to the same place, and then we’re going to come back, it makes sense to only take one car, right?”

“Actually, yes,” I admitted. “That’s an excellent point, Vanya.”

The three of us started to make our way toward the door, when my mind floated back to Lila. I didn’t want her to think I’d jumped ship on her; the least I could do was leave her a note. I simply stuck a finger in the air to get my siblings’ attention and turned around, searching for Elliott’s pad of paper and a pen.

_Lila. Had to go get Luther, will be back soon. I promise._

_-Mina_

I started to put the pen down again, but found myself hesitating. Was this appropriate yet? I didn’t know where everything last night put us, and I didn’t want to jump to conclusions and scare her off. Then again, it could be entirely harmless.

With a final flourish, I drew a heart next to my name, then set the pen down.

Without further debate, Five and I followed Vanya to her car. Though it took a bit of a fight, Five sat in the back so it would be easier for me to guide Vanya to the House for Solitary Men. All three of us had intended to go up and speak to Luther, but when we got there, it didn’t feel right, so we sent Vanya up as a representative, making sure she had all the right information before she left. Meanwhile, Five and I leaned against the side of the brown car, scuffing our feet or picking at our clothes as we waited.

“Hey,” I finally murmured. I wasn’t looking up at first, but I knew he had turned to look at me. “This doomsday thing… when you got there, what did you see?”

As though someone flipped a switch, Five’s expression crumbled; his shoulders tensed up as he pulled his arms closer against his chest, completely closing himself off.

Whatever it was he’d seen, it was _bad_. Five hadn’t always been an open book, but I understood I always had to ability to make him talk when he was otherwise reluctant. For him to completely shut down and refuse to say anything more was out of the ordinary, at least on my end.

“I’m just trying to get a bearing on what we’re dealing with,” I explained. “Not to bring up past demons, but last time, you wouldn’t let me help you until we only had four days left, and we couldn’t stop it.” That came out unintentionally harsh, and I began to feel a knowing guilt. Gently, I reached over with both my arms and pulled my brother against my side. “I know you think you have to solve this on your own because you’ve seen it, but you don’t. It’s not just your burden to bear, nor should it be. Even if they’re scattered, like right now, this family is _always_ going to be here to help you through whatever you need. And, if all else fails, I’ll always be there exactly when you need me, if not earlier.”

He didn’t say anything, but I knew Five took that to heart. I’d genuinely meant it, and even if he didn’t fully believe it right now, I hoped he’d recognize it soon. After all, it had only been two weeks for him, and it’s not like this got any easier the second time around.

“Can I ask you something?” It didn’t sound like his voice had completely found him again, but it was inching its way back. Rather than verbally responding, I simply let out a little ‘hm’, encouraging him to continue. “On the note you left Lila this morning…” My eyebrows arched up slightly. Five had been behind me when we left, so I guess he went back to see what I’d needed to write down. “Is something going on there?”

I wanted to give him a definitive answer, but I just couldn’t yet. I hadn’t even asked her yet, not to mention the fact she snuck off in the middle of the night made me a little nervous.

“I don’t know yet, actually,” I sighed. “I mean, I’d love for her to be my girlfriend, but I don’t know where she stands on anything yet.” The fact he’d asked me something so uncharacteristic brought me a slight bit of confusion. “Why do you ask?”

Before he got the chance to answer, the wall a few floors above us suddenly crashed open, a prominent hole appearing dead in the middle. From inside, I noticed Luther, his face still slightly swollen, peer out at Five and I. Somehow, my brother found amusement in what was clearly a sudden outburst, and laughed as he squinted against the rising sun. However, I was sure he’d grown at least a little nervous because that could mean Luther wouldn’t come with us.

“Well, nice to see nothing’s changed, even in 1963,” I joked, trying to soften the blow of what I figured was coming next.

As a confirmation of my unfortunate suspicions, Vanya came storming out of the building only a moment later, her eyes downcast with her hands balled into fists. Something Luther had said changed her attitude, demonstrated by her reluctance to speak to us when she emerged. Instead, she started to make a beeline right for her car, forcing Five to step up and into her path slightly.

“Well, that clearly went well,” Five deadpanned. “You ready to go?”

“I’m going back to the farm.” Her blunt statement lit a fire in my brother’s eyes, furious she wasn’t as fixated on the mission as he was. The promises I’d made just moments ago were completely unraveling right in front of us. 

“Hey. Unacceptable, Vanya. Remember, we need to stick together.” Five was persistent, but Vanya suddenly didn’t seem to give a shit.

“Oh, why, so I don’t end the world again?”

There it was…

Luther must have mentioned it to her when they were talking. It was bound to come up eventually, but a situation that was obviously already spring-loaded with emotional intensity certainly wasn’t the ideal moment. 

“Were you even gonna tell me?” she demanded as she threw open the door to her car. Five hesitated a moment, likely debating how exactly to deliver this, but his frustration was starting to get the better of him.

“You know what? In my defense, no. All right? And can you blame me? When you… you get angry, shit blows up.” My blood ran cold as Vanya’s brown eyes fixated on me, her expression completely indignant.

“What about you?” I stuttered, fearful as I was put on the spot. “What, just because your brother didn’t want to tell me, you just went with it?”

“No, Vanya, that’s not—“ She cut me off before I could explain.

“Are there any other family secrets you failed to mention?” Her voice dripped with venom as she slammed the car door in Five’s face. Despite the move she intended to end the conversation, Five kept going. 

“A boatload, Vanya,” he answered honestly, “which I don’t have the luxury of sharing them at the—“ Realizing she couldn’t hear him, he knocked on the window, prompting her to roll it down, though she still appeared incredibly peeved. “The clock is ticking on doomsday.” Vanya didn’t budge on her stance, and shockingly, Five caved a little. “Just tell me when I need you, you’ll be ready.”

Vanya barely waited a second before her head snapped forward slightly.

“I can’t help you, Five. I don’t even know who I am.” My heart dropped as she turned the keys, starting the engine.

“You’re our sister.” I hadn’t intended to be the one to say that, but it slipped out. “And a member of the Umbrella Academy. Like it or not, that’s who you are.”

“Look, that’s who I was, okay? New timeline, new me.”

“No, that’s not how it works!”

Having made her final declaration, Vanya stepped on the gas pedal, leaving Five and I in the dust. I felt defeat and dread settle into me, but I tried my best not to let it show as Five turned to look up at Luther, only to spot him flipping his brother off. This hadn’t gone the way either of us had intended, not even in the slightest.

“I wonder if it’s too late to be un-adopted,” Five muttered.

Under normal circumstances, I would have said something to discourage the thought, but at the moment, I was more fixated on the fact we’d ended up right back in the same boat we’d been in two days ago. Still, I attempted to remain positive.

“This is just a tiny, little hitch in the plan. We’ll get past it.” I paced back and forth, running my hands through my hair. “I mean, they’re our siblings. They’ll find their way back eventually.” Part of me understood I was in denial, but then again, Five seemed to be in the same place. “For now, let’s try to go get Klaus and Allison. At least one of them will come with us, and that’s better than nothing.”

“We have bigger things to worry about right now.” I halted my movements, eyeing my brother with curiosity.

“Like…?” He made his way over to me and reached into one of his pockets, removing a folded sheet of paper. Once it was in my hands, I hastily read over the words, my mind coming back to me.

The gala…

“Shit,” I groaned. “I completely forgot about that.” I started to run through plans in my mind, but none of them allotted time to go round up the other two members of our family before we had to go. “Okay, here’s what we do… we head back to my house because I need to change, we go to Elliott’s and fill Diego and Lila in, we sneak into that gala, and the moment we get what we need out of Dad, we leave and start rounding everyone up.”

It was slightly irrational and extremely hopeful, but at the moment it was all we had.

“Fine.”

I did my best to remain balanced on the cracked pavement as I turned circles around my brother, waiting until the tingling running down my arms turned into a slight burning sensation to slap my hand down on his. Right as I did, we jumped, and I quickly ran up my steps to throw on a new sweater and a skirt before we repeated the routine, joining our brother and Lila again.


	12. Status

Upon arriving back at Elliott’s, Five and I were greeted with coffee and tea, brewing so they would be fresh upon our arrival. Lila was up and moving about now, attempting to entertain herself. Diego remained passed out on the couch, while Elliott sat in his room filled with equipment, staring at screens and adjusting radio dials. Once she spotted us, that heart melting smile crossed Lila’s face, and she made her way over to me, wrapping an arm around my waist.

“Welcome back,” she greeted. It took her a second, but she realized there were less people standing before her than had been here last night. “What happened to you siblings?”

“They bailed,” Five scoffed. “End of the world, they always bail.” Lila opened her mouth, likely to press, but I shook my head, discouraging any further speak on the subject that wasn’t necessary.

“We have a lot to talk about. You okay with filling Diego in while I change his bandage?” I asked, looking down at Five. He simply nodded, the words leaving him in his moment of lingering frustration.

“You sure? I don’t mind doing it,” Lila offered. I shook my head and reached for her other hand, offering it a squeeze before I broke away to find the medical supplies. I could hear the clinking of something hard being poured into a bowl as I fished through the drawers, digging out the dusty First Aid kit Lila had thrown together from the supplies Elliott had lying around.

“Diego!” Diego’s eyes shot open and he bolted upright as I screamed, completely disoriented. “Good morning, sunshine.” I took a seat next to him and helped get him upright, so I could easily reach his wound. Lila chuckled to herself as she took a seat next to me, one of her arms finding its way around my shoulders.

“What the hell, Mina?” Diego demanded, glaring daggers at me… ironically enough.

“You were dead asleep,” I reasoned, pouring some antiseptic onto a cotton pad. “That was the easiest way to wake you up.”

“I thought something was wrong,” he groaned. “Don’t do that again.” In a completely childish gesture, I stuck my tongue out at him, electing to ignore the eye roll he followed it with. “Am I crazy, or was Vanya here last night?”

“Well, you _are_ crazy, but that’s not the point,” I taunted.

“Thanks, sis,” he deadpanned. I cast my gaze to Five, waiting for him to explain, but he’d become fixated on pacing, his eyes furiously scanning over the floor beneath him. He had been through a lot, so I didn’t mind taking things over this time.

“A couple nights ago, after you passed out, one of the devices Elliott set up picked up some sound waves. We drove out to the coordinates and found Vanya there. Turns out, the reason those sound waves went off—you know, the source of her powers—was because these weirdos Five knew about tried to shoot her.” I shook my head, continuing to watch Five dart across the floor. “Anyways, turns out her memory’s been completely wiped. Five and I helped fill in a few gaps, but we… kind of left out the fact she caused the apocalypse. And then, we went to get Luther this morning, and he told her, and she got pissed and drove off.”

Diego took a moment to completely process the recap, his facial expression shifting quite a few times in a matter of seconds, before he was able to jump back in again.

“So, what, you just let her go?” he asked as I changed out the gauze, throwing the used square tainted with brown blood to the side.

“Well, Vanya had a lot to process.” Five continued to pace behind the couch. At first, Diego had been following him with his head, but I’m sure it became too much of a strain on his neck by the time he stopped. “She’ll come around. I know she will.” I finished taping up the new piece of gauze, and once I set the materials down, I cast my younger brother a sympathetic smile.

“What about the guys that went after her?”

“The Swedes?” Something about that name made Lila’s brows raise the tiniest bit, almost as though she recognized it. Before I got the chance to question her, Elliott entered the room, our mugs of assorted morning drinks ready for our consumption.

“Yeah, I mean, how do you know they won’t go after her again?”

“We don’t,” Five shrugged, cutting straight to the point.

“Any idea who sent them?” Lila asked as she swallowed the first sip of her coffee. Five cast her a glare, causing me to stiffen slightly. Despite what he’d said back at the diner, he appeared to plainly despise her, and the thought of that made my stomach flip.

“Oh, I have my suspicions.” He, too, acted like Lila should have known them. “But right now, our priority is finding Dad and getting answers, ‘cause everything else depends on it.”

“Which, for the record, I found him already,” Diego cut in, acting like he’d done something effective for the cause.

“And then let him go before we could have a meaningful conversation,” Five snapped back, taking a seat in the chair across from the other three of us.

“He stabbed me.” Rather than taking sympathy on his injured brother, Five smirked, a clear indication he was about to take a shot.

“I’m surprised he waited this long, Diego. We’ve all had the urge.” I’d chosen to take a sip of my tea right at that moment, causing me to choke slightly as I laughed. Lila and Elliott even joined in, even though they hadn’t known Diego for that long.

Then again, it didn’t take much for him to piss someone off.

“Good one.” Lila stuck her hand out for a high-five, but Five just blinked at her, choosing to ignore the gesture before he attempted to move on. I watched as Lila shrunk back, defeated, so in an attempt to make her feel better, I reached up and laced my fingers through those of hers that were dangling over my shoulder. Thankfully, it seemed to work, and the life returned to her eyes.

“Good thing I know where Dad’s gonna be tonight.”

Five removed the invitation from his pocket and passed it in our direction, waiting for one of us to take it. Since I was in the middle of the two people who had yet to see it, I snatched the paper with my free hand and held it out in front of me, keeping at a distance they could both see.

I felt my heart flutter slightly as Lila leaned her head against my shoulder.

“Where’d you get this?” Diego inquired as he started to read over the cursive text.

“Found it at his office while he was busy stabbing you.” Our brother let out a couple dry laughs, taking just a second to glace up at Five before he resumed looking at the paper.

“’Hoyt Hillenkoetter and the Consulate General of Mexico in Dallas cordially invite you to a gala.’” To my right, I could hear Elliott stuttering, intriguing me to look to him.

“Whoa, wait. Hoyt Hillenkoetter.” I drew my head back slightly, taking care not to collide with Lila, as I raised an eyebrow at the floundering man standing before us. “Are you serious?”

“You know him?” Lila gasped beside me.

“We should go,” she whispered. “Says there’s gonna be a seafood tower.” All I could manage was a single laugh, unsure of whether she was joking or not.

“No, Hillenkoetter is… is one of the Majestic Twelve” That clarified absolutely nothing on my end.

“The hell is the Majestic Twelve?” My words may have come out a bit harsher than intended, but I chose not to dwell on it. Today was clearly just an off day for my patience.

“What?” It took Elliott a moment to process my question. “It’s a… it’s a secret committee.” He rushed over to his desk and began to sift through files, photos, and notes. “Uh, scientists, military, uh, deep state. No one knows what they really do.”

“Wait, so they’re government.” Diego attempted to sit up, but his wound got the better of him, forcing him to slide right back down.

“ _Shadow_ government,” Elliott clarified, still searching for whatever he was trying to show us. “Yeah, Kennedy was the first president to try to push ‘em into the light, but these guys are not to be trifled with. Oh, here we go.” He jumped up a little as he pulled a small photograph from the bottom of a pile and presented it to us. All four of us leaned over, running our eyes over each of the men, all dressed in black suits. “Ah, right here.” He pointed to one of the men closest to the front. “This one… oh, right here. That’s Hoyt right there.”

“Huh.”

Elliott had said they were the Majestic Twelve, but I caught one glaring error in his statement. Right as I opened my mouth to speak, Lila let out a little gasp and beat me to the punch.

“I only count 11,” she pointed out.

“That’s because they’ve only identified 11 so far.”

“Who’s the twelfth?”

Right as the question left Diego’s lips, a singular image flashed in my mind, grainy as it was. Though suspicions couldn’t be completely confirmed, the invitation Five had found was a pretty good indication. Slowly, my eyes floated upwards, meeting with my brother’s before I flashed my gaze over to Diego.

Now we _had_ to go—no exceptions.

The only trouble was we definitely weren’t dressed like the sort that would fit into a gala.

“Okay, if we’re going to do this, we have to look the part,” I reasoned. “We’re not going to last two seconds at that party if we show up looking like this. So, if you boys can bite the bullet for just a bit, we have to go get proper gala attire.”

To my surprise, neither of my brothers even let out a groan of protest. In fact, Diego started fishing around for his shirt, while Five got up and took our mugs away, preparing to head out.

“Well, that was easier than I thought.” I turned to Lila, an optimistic smile on my face. “You ready to go?”

“Let’s get out of here.”

After brief good-byes to Elliott, the four of us piled into the broken car and headed off to the only formalwear department store I knew of. The cashier eyed us with suspicion as we wandered through the aisles, likely because we looked like a group of homeless people, pulling at any dresses and suit jackets that caught our eyes. Different shades of each color flashed by along the racks, some far too bright for such a formal occasion.

As I was heading toward one of the changing rooms, I noticed my brother just sitting there, bouncing his leg as he remained put in one of those chairs they put by the mirrors for long-suffering boyfriends and children who whined about wanting treats the entire time, wearing out their frazzled mothers. Although Five wasn’t rolling his eyes or complaining, the expression on his face indicated anything but contentment.

Without even having to think, I hiked up the dresses in my arms and sunk down into the chair right beside him. He refused to spare me a glance, opting instead to keep picking at some invisible fiber on his blazer.

“You know, if you wanted something to wear that wasn’t that crusty uniform, I’d be more than happy to drop Lila and Diego off after this and go with you.” That did absolutely nothing to soften Five’s expression. In fact, I’m pretty sure I saw him further tense his jaw.

“We don’t have time, Mina. We’re already behind where we should be.”

“Hey, you said yourself we have to go to this gala,” I accused. “The only way we’re going to be able to do that is if we look like we’re supposed to be there.”

He still refused to relent, and I took the defeat.

“You’re just going to have to bear it for a little while longer,” I snapped, a heavy weight pushing down on me. “You’ll live.”

A bitter, intense sting poked around in my chest and throat as I stood, unwilling to give my brother any further attention beyond that. He wanted to sulk, fine, but I drew the line and dragging down the help we were offering him. Sometimes, he got so focused on the goal, he forgot there were steps that had to be taken in order to get there; this wasn’t anything more than one of those.

Frustrated, I tugged on dresses before almost immediately tossing them aside. All of a sudden, I was unwilling to even give any of them a chance, and it wasn’t until a dress required a little extra help that I finally gave myself pause. I considered myself pretty flexible, but the ribbons required to keep the dress on tight were just beyond my reach, meaning I’d need extra help. Reluctantly, I pried open the dressing room door, just enough so I could be heard.

“Can one of you come help me?” I called out as quietly as possible. There was a bit of a delay before someone else spoke up.

“I’ve got her.”

I jumped back slightly as Lila slid through the crack I’d left in the door, shutting it quickly behind her. My heartbeat had just started to come down from the surprise, when I noticed the dress she’d chosen. The light, bouncy cyan complemented her skin perfectly, while the bodice hugged her just tight enough to show off the curves she had; the neckline scooped just before her shoulders, giving her a sort of elegance I didn’t realize she was capable of.

Lila looked… stunning.

“You want me to help you with whatever you need, or are you gonna keep drooling for another couple of minutes?” she teased, pushing her tongue against her teeth as she smiled at me.

“Sorry, sorry,” I shook my head. “It’s just, you… that’s definitely the dress you should get.” Lila suddenly seemed to get self-conscious, brushing over the crisp fabric of the dress.

“You think so?” I came back at her with a confident smile.

“Absolutely.” I turned around and pointed toward the loose-hanging ribbons. “Now, can you help me tie these?”

I gasped a little as Lila yanked on the strings, pulling the dress as tight as possible against my skin, just short of cutting off my airflow. Sensing this, Lila loosened the grip a little bit before tying the ribbons up in bows. When she stepped to the side of me, her eyes wandered over me, taking in how the dress fit me.

“You look like a star,” she finally complimented, settling her arms around my waist. “This is the one.”

Lila’s affectionate manner and her close proximity to me brought the question Five had raised earlier today back into my mind. Gently, I set my hands over hers, then turned my head back slightly, our noses just barely touching.

“I know this may not be the most appropriate setting, but I have to ask… what’s going on here?” I caught Lila off-guard for a second, her head moving from its place against my shoulder. “I don’t want to make any assumptions on your end, but… I like you a lot, Lila.” It took her a moment to collect herself, but when she finally did, the smile returned to her face.

“I’ll be your girlfriend if you’ll be mine?” I laughed.

“Absolutely.”

A warm blush crept up my face as she placed a kiss on my cheek, then went back out of the dressing room so we both could change and the four of us could get out of here.


	13. Unabashed Dancing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! It's my 20th birthday, and to celebrate, I'm releasing 3 whole chapters today, in addition to the ones you'll get on Friday. Enjoy!!

The muggy Texas air sunk its deep claws into my body, causing my limbs to feel like they weighed a thousand pounds each. Even in November, when the whispers of winter chills were beginning to creep in, a heavy rain threatened to reverse any of that cool air. Some of Lila’s hair was beginning to frizz up slightly, and I noticed drops of sweat elegantly sliding down the sides of Five’s face. Ever since the incident at the store, he’d been reluctant to speak to me, providing the longest period of time either of us had gone without speaking to the other (save for the years he had disappeared, which I didn’t count because we weren’t near each other). He’d refused to meet eyes with any of us or utter more than a sound every now and then, making it difficult to effectively communicate a plan. Diego and I threw together the best semblance of one we could muster, but it lacked a clear and concise path.

Couples chatted and laughed as the valets took their cars off to where they were meant to be parked. Every person that entered appeared to be middle-aged, save for some of the young women elderly men had somehow roped into coming with them. We were going to stand out a lot more than previously intended, but as long as no one stopped to question us, we should be able to get in and out just fine.

Diego led the charge as he climbed up over the side of the bridge the four of us had crouched behind, following him like ducks as we moved to take the same position as before, just beside a car this time.

“So, what’s the plan?” Lila whispered from behind me. Diego cast his eyes in her direction momentarily, before they trained right back to our intended location.

“We infiltrate, we identify, we extract. Double time.” He spoke quickly, as though he couldn’t be bothered to waste another second.

“What the hell’s he talking about?” I turned back slightly, glancing down at Lila with a smile.

“Find the old man and get out fast,” I translated. Diego rolled his eyes at me.

“That’s what I said.” I shook my head, telling him off slightly and forcing him to move on. “On me.”

Once Diego darted over to the next car, I jumped out from behind the safety of the vehicle and took my place beside him. It took them both a couple of seconds, but eventually, Five and Lila caught up, and once we got our opening, the four of us crept in through the side door.

Opalescent chandeliers cast tiny circles of light down on the faces of attendees wandering about, searching for food or making small talk amongst both familiar faces and new acquaintances. The joyful, bouncing notes of a mariachi band twirled their way into my ears as the delightful spices and scents of various foods set on trays drifted through my nostrils. For a moment, I allowed myself to get lost in the grandeur of it all, completely forgetting the reason we’d come here. A server, dressed completely in white, bowed slightly to us, offering champagne for the new arrivals, which all but Diego gladly accepted. Under normal circumstances, I would have tried to take the drink from Five, but I was too deep into my own awe to really give a shit at the moment.

Diego, on the other hand, couldn’t bring himself to lose focus for even a second.

“I don’t see Dad anywhere,” he murmured, leaning down so only we could hear his observations.

“Just keep an eye out for the Majestic Twelve,” Five instructed, finally breaking his brooding streak. “I got the upstairs. Diego, try not to do anything stupid.” Lila’s laughter was met only with a blank expression.

I reached out and grabbed onto Lila’s arm as she attempted to follow Five up the stairs, suddenly very intrigued with why she wanted to go after him. Up until this point, my brother had been nothing but cold to her, so the fact she had such a vested interest in him confused me. Not to mention, this wasn’t the first time she had just wandered off without any indication as to where she wanted to go.

“Trying to ditch me again?” I was turning more and more into my brothers every second I spent with them.

“What are you talking about?” The way she cocked her head indicated she was suddenly playing dumb. Not exactly the most promising thing coming from my girlfriend.

“Last night…” Her gaze drifted away from me again, fixating on Five running up the stairs. “Hey.” I turned her head to meet my eyes. “Where’d you go?”

“You really wanna do this now?” She sounded appalled that I dared to ask, but I couldn’t just let things go. I’d learned from years of communicating with my siblings that if I didn’t stand firm and demand answers right after I’d asked for them, I was never going to get anything clear cut.

“Really.”

“Fine. I went to the pharmacy to buy gauze for your brother’s disgusting stab wound. Is that allowed, or…?” Something about her posture, and the question at the end of her sentence tipped me off to something deeper going on. “As a matter of fact, you owe me $1.89. Or, you would if I’d actually paid for it.”

Before I could get any further into the conversation, the song changed, and Lila grabbed me by my wrist, dragging me along behind her with enthusiasm.

“They’re playing our song.”

Panic quickly caught up with me as she led the both of us onto the dance floor. Completely out of habit, I took the lead and wrapped an arm firm around her waist, but as the two of us glided across the dance floor, my eyes kept darting around, frantically keeping watch over all the other people here with us.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Lila sighed, raising her eyebrows at me. “What’s got you all tense?” My hands trembled as I allowed myself to keep my eyes on her for a moment longer than I’d liked.

“Lila, I hate to be the killjoy here, but of all the people we could be dancing around, this is the group we’d have to be the _most_ worried about. I mean, they’re going to be the least okay with two women dancing together… like this.” I caught my breath, the worries tumbling out faster than my lungs could manage. “Not that anyone down here would really think this was normal.”

Though I didn’t want to stop dancing with her, I’d hoped Lila would at least think over the concerns I’d just voiced. She _did_ seem to process them, but even after, her smile only grew.

“Mina.” Lila made a big show of looking around the room at all the other dancers. “No one here gives a shit. See?”

She had a point. No one here even gave us the time of day, but maybe that was just them trying to pretend it wasn’t happening. Still, it did nothing to calm my nerves.

“But—“

“And, I’m willing to bet they still won’t care after I do this.”

I flinched momentarily as she got up onto her toes—still too short, even in the heels—and pressed her lips against mine, completely uncaring as to who might spot us. After a second, the initial shock wore off, and I pulled her a little tighter against me as I kissed her back, momentarily letting myself go. She just had this way of completely banishing all my worries.

The moment Lila pulled away, I glanced around the room; there were no stares or expressions of shock, no women were clutching their pearls, and no old men had collapsed from heart attacks.

Sure, that was extreme and overdramatic, but in Dallas in 1963… you could just never be too sure.

“You’re right,” I laughed, my last little bits of tension falling away. “These old people do not give a shit.”

I felt beat of the music work its way into my bones, allowing myself to finally loosen up. I fell into an easy waltz with Lila, twirling and holding her close. She followed along easily, surprising me slightly.

“Someone’s got moves,” she smiled once I’d turned her back around and pulled her close to my chest.

“Well, I’ve been a ballerina for… pretty much as long as I’ve been alive,” I explained as I pulled us apart. “But, my father also insisted on ballroom lessons. He used to make Five and I dance together, and I can tell you confidently that both of us wanted to jump out a window the entire time.” Some of my father’s words crawled back into my mind as the two of us laughed. “’One never knows when the _paso doble_ will be the difference between life and death…’” I shifted my hand slightly and dipped Lila down toward the floor. “’…children.’”

“My mum used to say something along those lines.” Lila brought one of her hands up and brushed some of my hair from my face. “Switch.”

I yanked the two of us up and pulled away momentarily, allowing Lila to shift our positions and take the lead in the dance. Her movements were far sharper than mine had been, but that didn’t really make a difference to me. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as she turned me so that my back was pressed against her, and she pulled my face down to meet with hers momentarily, before she pushed me away again and I resumed the leading dancer position. Lila giggled and pressed her nose against my cheek, causing the spot to almost instantly heat up.

For a second, I allowed my eyes to drift away from her, when they landed on a sight that caused my mind to go completely blank. Diego was standing just barely out of a doorway in front of us, speaking to a woman with long, blonde hair, comforting eyes, and a loving smile.

It couldn’t be…

I shook my head. That wasn’t Mom. At least, not the one we grew up with. But I never realized she had been modeled after a real woman. I always figured she was just the image of an ideal mother figure Dad had drawn up in his mind.

“Well, you are easily distracted,” Lila joked as she followed my gaze. As much as I regretted it, I had to leave her for a moment, just to keep Diego from doing something stupid.

“Only when one of my brothers is about to make a fool out of himself,” I grunted.

“So, nearly all the time.” Her statement gave me pause, but I still removed my arms from her waist, offering her a sorrowful smile.

“I’ll be right back.”

Once I let go, I made a beeline straight for Diego and the woman, catching up to them right before she walked away. Diego jumped a little as I appeared at his side, catching her attention.

The name nearly left my mouth as she focused her green eyes on me.

“This your girlfriend?” she asked, completely unaware. Diego and I glanced at each other for a moment, eyes wide and faces wrinkled with disgust.

“No! No,” I quickly denied, waving my hands slightly. 

“This is my sister, actually,” Diego corrected. “Mina…” He placed a hand on my back and pushed me forward slightly. “…meet Grace.”

I sucked in a deep breath as she reached out and took my hand, shaking it firmly. It felt so bittersweet, knowing she had absolutely no clue that eventually, there would be a caretaker created in her honor that eight children would come to love more than anyone else in the world. I couldn’t tell her how much I loved her, or that I thought of her every day since we lost her… I just had to pretend we were complete strangers.

“I-It’s nice to meet you,” I stammered, attempting to keep the warm tears at bay.

“You as well.” Her Texas drawl definitely caught me off guard, but I tried my best to remain friendly. “I have to admit, I can’t see the resemblance.” It still felt so strange, looking at this woman and realizing she knew nothing about us.

“Oh, uh, yeah. We’re adopted,” I shrugged. Mom—or just Grace?—nodded, understanding coming over her face.

“Well, you two look out for each other. ‘The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.’”

Of course both Mom and Dad would go around quoting people.

“Absolutely, ma’am.”

With that, she nodded and walked away, leaving Diego and I with the heaviness of the moment. Immediately after she was out of earshot, I turned to him, raising my eyebrows.

“You okay?” I asked, concerned. Diego continued to stare at where Mom had been stood for another lingering moment, before he finally forced himself to look at me.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just… jarring.”

A wave of intense sympathy washed over me, so I reached out and pulled him into a hug, offering him at least a little bit of comfort in a moment of what likely felt like a sword straight to the heart.

“Clearly, she was a pretty remarkable woman, if Dad made a caretaker in her likeness.” I smiled. “Then again, Mom was a pretty phenomenal woman, too. Even if she wasn’t human.”

My mind came back to me, and I suddenly pulled away from my brother, my eyes snapping around to find Lila standing by herself, selecting some of the seafood from the tower she’d been so excited about this morning.

“Lila.” I turned back to Diego. “Will you be okay if I go back to her? Because if you need me, I’ll—“ Diego laughed a little, cutting me off.

“Go be with your girlfriend,” he encouraged. “I’m still on lookout for Dad.”

“Are you sure?” Before I could protest any further, Diego spun me around and started to push me away.

“Do something for yourself for once, Mina. We’re all going to be okay if you do.”

I couldn’t completely fight my instincts, but I gave in to Diego’s urging and headed over toward Lila.


	14. The IKEA Mafia

“Hey.”

Lila briefly glanced up from her plate of food, then pointed at one right next to her, clearly intended for me. I felt a little awkward taking it, given that I had just up and abandoned her, but the rumbling in my stomach proved to be a _far_ more powerful motivator, so I took a seat beside her. Lila didn’t seem upset, necessarily, but that wasn’t going to stop me from saying my piece.

“I’m sorry I left you out on the dance floor,” I apologized, taking care not to eat as I spoke. Dad would have condemned me to hell if he saw that. “That woman Diego was talking to is...”

I trailed off, unsure of whether or not to completely delve into this. Though Lila had seen Five use his powers a couple times, and we’d shown her that footage of Kennedy’s assassination—something that was in the future for her—I still felt wary about introducing foreign concepts to a woman in her own time. I may not have understood much about time travel, but I got that something like this might be crossing the line.

“Mina?” Lila leaned onto her elbows, bringing her eyes down to meet with mine, which had fallen to the tablecloth. “I lost you for a second there.” I sighed, then moved one of my hands to rest over hers.

“Okay, look, what I’m about to say isn’t going to make any sense whatsoever. You’re going to think I’ve completely lost my mind, and I’m not going to blame you whatsoever, but I need you to at least listen to the words that come out of my mouth. You don’t have to believe me.”

“What?” Lila laughed, her expression turning slightly wary. “Are you about to tell me she’s some ex-wife and you have six kids with her?” I shook my head violently. Lila couldn’t have possibly known the context of anything, but her suggestion made me feel disturbed deep down.

“Oh God, no. What is it with people thinking I’m dating my relatives today?” One of Lila’s eyebrows shot up.

“So, she’s a relative?” I breathed for another moment, preparing myself for whatever came next, then just spat it out.

“She’s my mom. She just… doesn’t know it yet.” I paused, just for a second. “Well, she’s not _actually_ my mom; she’s just the person my dad modeled her after.”

“I’m sorry, what exactly am I missing here?” If Lila didn’t think I was insane at this point, I wasn’t quite sure what else I had to lose.

It was still a risky line, but maybe she wouldn’t think too far into things. Besides, if I was clever enough about my language, I wouldn’t have to give absolutely _everything_ away.

“When we were young, our dad didn’t really take care of us much, so he designed a caretaker for all of us. She wasn’t our actual mom, but we all called her that. That woman over there that Diego and I were talking to, that’s the woman Dad must have modeled her after.” She still appeared slightly confused, but thankfully, Lila just shrugged things off and went back to her plate of food.

I finally gave myself the chance to eat, reflecting on what Diego had said to me. I took time for myself, it just wasn’t as much time as I spent taking care of my family. I supposed I had always been like that, even for people like Luther. I couldn’t even bring myself to imagine a scenario where my family wouldn’t be the most important factor in my decisions. They had been such an overwhelming source of love and help when I was younger—even if we all showed it in different, disjointed ways—and I’d taken it for granted because I was angry and hurt. I suppose, subconsciously, I felt like I needed to make up for that.

“So, that necklace.” Lila pointed toward the silver ‘5’ pendant that caught some of the shimmers off the chandelier’s glow. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, I reached up and delicately touched the smooth surface. “What’s the deal? I saw Five has a pin like that. Did you all get them?”

Yet again, another topic that would have potentially catastrophic repercussions. I could always say that we did, and Five and I were the only ones that chose to wear them, but I’d never been a very good liar. Someone like Lila, who clearly read people easily, would probably see right through it.

She’d seen Five use his powers. Would it really be _that_ impossible for her to believe the true story? And, just like with Mom, if I left out the detail of the year all of this happened, we hopefully wouldn’t run into much of an issue. 

“I promise there’s a logical explanation for what I’m about to say, but right off the bat, it’s not going to make any sense.”

I’d never found explaining the whole story of my complicated relationship to my brother this intimidating; it’s different when not only am I risking messing up the timeline of events, but I’m talking to my girlfriend, who, up until this point, somehow hasn’t run for the hills yet.

“Five and I were born twins, and that’s why Dad gave us these things.” I held up the necklace for emphasis.

The realization slowly settled into Lila, and I watched as the expression on her face shifted from content listening to complete confusion. It didn’t help that she was mid-chew, causing me to laugh a little bit; I had to collect myself before I continued, otherwise this might not come across right.

“Do you remember, after we watched the Frankel Footage, how Five talked about getting stuck somewhere for 45 years?” Lila nodded, though admittedly, she seemed more hesitant than she had with the whole ‘Mom’ situation. “That was because, when we were 13, he jumped way ahead to the future. He found out he couldn’t get back, and so he was just forced to stay there, all alone and ageing without anyone there for him…” My voice began to croak, forcing me to clear it and wipe away the water rising up in my eyes. “When he did get back to us, he messed things up somehow, and he got trapped in the same body as when he went missing—so, 13 years old—but he still has the awareness and consciousness of when he came back to us, meaning in his head, he’s 58. So, he’s my younger, older, and twin brother, all at the same time.”

There were a million questions I expected to come out of Lila’s mouth; part of me figured she’d just up and leave right there. The mere concept of Five’s age was enough to make _my_ head spin, and I had complete context on everything, so I couldn’t even _imagine_ what was running through her mind.

“That explains why you’re so protective,” she shrugged.

Her response completely caught me off guard. When I was telling the story, she’d been staring at me like I’d started to slip into some alien tongue, and she had no clue what in the hell I was saying, but now, all of a sudden, she just acted like everything was casual, and that sort of thing happened all the time.

What exactly was her deal?

“You’re not… weirded out?” Lila waved her hand dismissively.

“Diego said your family was strange. I didn’t think it was to this extent, but after everything that’s happened, I’m more relieved I finally got an explanation as to why he acts the way he does.”

I didn’t really feel it appropriate to launch into the ins and outs of Five’s ego, and his tendencies to believe he was above other people, especially in this environment.

The sun had sunk down below the horizon line by that point, leaving the night sky twinkling with optimistic stars, hoping to liven up the lives of some of the duller guests. I’d been so caught up in talking to and spending time with Lila, I’d failed to notice how long Five had been gone. That is, until a ‘thud’ slammed down on the floor above us, and some guests who had been milling about up there came clambering down the spiral staircase.

Adrenaline pushed me up to my feet, my eyes refusing to leave the spot I was headed towards. Instinctually, I tried to calm myself down and force away worst-case scenarios, but there wasn’t a good way I could see this situation going. Once again, I left Lila behind without explanation, but I hoped she’d at least know why I’d dashed off.

The climb felt agonizingly endless, as though the staircase knew how desperate I was, and just to spite me, extended itself for every step I climbed. The closer I got to the top, I could hear blows landing, forcing my feet to sprint faster, if that was even possible. The yellow light that cast itself over the world as I wound around created multitudes of dark corners, but the narrow spotlights of the hanging lamps perfectly highlighted the alarming scene awaiting at the top of the staircase.

A _frighteningly_ tall, bulky man in a white suit with matching hair had Five locked into combat, throwing repeated punches that struck my brother without a break. Though he certainly was trying, Five couldn’t manage to even swing out his fist, putting him at a severe disadvantage.

This guy seemed big, but he only stood a few inches taller than me. Together, Five and I could probably take him, or, at the very least, wear him down until Diego inevitably came to find us.

Right as I prepped myself to turn, hoping to build up a charge without the guy noticing, I felt something wrap around my neck, pulled so tight I couldn’t breathe. My airflow had been cut off quickly, furthering the panic already melting my mind, causing me to thrash and attempt to pull at whatever was there. My eyes widened in horror as, from down the hall, another man, similar in appearance to the one attacking Five, strode at me confidently—almost with a taunting arrogance—and slammed his fist right into my stomach.

These were the guys Five had been talking about… The goddamn IKEA mafia…

He must have slung on brass knuckles at some point, creating a _far_ more powerful blow than I had expected. It stung greatly, but it wasn’t the worst pain I’d experienced.

I tried my best to use the position I was being held in to my advantage, attempting to kick my legs out and at least make the guy stumble just long enough for me to break out of this choke hold. Dark spots were starting to close in, so if I didn’t get this shit-bag off me soon, we were going to have a problem.

Somehow, I managed to get a knee up, and I nudged him back. My fingers glowed with just enough of a charge to do some damage, but because of my rapidly blurring vision, I ended up missing just by an inch.

That was the first time that had happened. Ever.

Though I couldn’t scream, I was sure my mouth was at least running through the motions as the Swede holding onto me dragged me back against the wall, allowing his brother to get back up and resume throwing punches to my gut. The little bit of air I had left was quickly running out, to the point where I could barely move; certainly not enough to fight, not even enough to struggle.

As I started to go slightly limp, a streak of cyan came dashing up the stairs, stopping dead in her tracks at the absurd sight in front of her. Lila’s eyes bounced back and forth between Five and I, as though trying to decide which one of us to help… which didn’t exactly instill confidence in this scenario.

“Lila!” I managed to gasp, wasting my air. “Help me!”

She met eyes with me, offering what almost appeared to be an apologetic smile, then turned right around and kicked off her shoes before sprinting in Five’s direction. Lila used the wall to push herself up onto one of the small, decorative tables resting against it, which she made into a Launchpad to get herself up onto the chandelier.

Anger and a sense of betrayal began to overwhelm me, but I didn’t have much time to dwell on that. Diego came running up the stairs just a moment later, and upon spotting me struggling to stay away, strode right in my direction, throwing one of his knives toward the Swede still landing blows on my abdomen.

I was going to have some _serious_ bruises tomorrow.

Strangely, Diego missed as well, but he’d done enough to at least get the brother’s attention. He got up from his place and began to attempt and take a swing at Diego, who moved just a bit too fast for any real damage to be done. Still, that didn’t prevent the brother he was dealing with from striking him a few times.

With my ability to breathe slowly coming back, I was able to clear my head and focus. I had just enough of a charge left to stun the one holding me down temporarily. Unwilling to let this go on any longer, I removed one of my hands from my neck and jammed it against what I presumed to be his torso, causing him to scream and drop his grip on me. All at once, air started rushing into my lungs, forcing me to cough as I collapsed down onto my knees. My limbs still felt as though they were made of jelly, but I couldn’t stay down here much longer.

The sound of glass shattering momentarily drew my attention up to the other end of the hall, just in time to see the Swede that had been giving Five trouble falling out the window. At least he was out of the weeds…

With his business concluded, Five made his way over to one of the panes that hadn’t been broken and looked out, his eyes shooting wide again.

“Dad,” I heard him gasp. Right as he prepared to jump, his gaze fell to me, collapsed on the ground and desperately gasping for air. Almost immediately, he seemed to abandon his previous intentions, but I wasn’t about to let him. Not when he’d come this close.

“Go,” I urged, waving my hand out away from me.

“Mina, I’m not—“

“Go get Dad!” I cut him off as I managed to push myself up off the ground. “Go get your answers.”

“But you’re—“

“Diego and I can take them,” I assured him. “Get out of here before I throw you out the window, idiot.”

Five still seemed hesitant, but after a little smile flashed on his face, he jumped. Hopefully, that meant all was forgiven.

The moment Five disappeared, Lila gathered up her shoes and rushed down the stairs, trying catch up with him. Why was she so interested in Five today? It was like a light switch went off in her brain. 

But that wasn’t what bothered me. Why the hell had she looked directly into my eyes, silently agreeing to help me, before she just turned and abandoned me? It stung, especially given all our previous conversations.

Before I got the chance to further dwell on things, the Swede that had held me back and attempted to choke me out got to his feet, fists in the air. I let out a single, taunting laugh as he looked up at me, falling a good two inches below my head. With just one, swift punch to the gut, he went right back down, his eyes slamming shut this time.

The brother Diego had been dealing with cast his eyes to me now—the one that had just hurt a member of his family. I suppose, on a certain scale, we were even now. But if we didn’t do something now, these assholes would keep following us.

Not to mention, I was suddenly craving whooping someone’s ass.

“Diego,” I snapped. He whipped around, and upon taking in the look on my face, stepped back, gesturing out toward the final aggressor that stood in our way. A passive-aggressive smile took shape on my face as I stared him down, basking in the moment I was about to have. “Oh yeah, mofo. It’s just you and me. Show me what you got.”

Immediately, I arched back, bending myself in half to avoid getting punched. He stumbled slightly following his swings, giving me the chance to shoot myself back upright and kick his side. Though I’d caught him off-guard momentarily, he still managed to recover quickly and grab onto my arm, pushing me back slightly and throwing his knee into my gut. The pain from the previous injuries he’d given me radiated outward, but I ignored it, using his weight against him to throw him against one of the windows. I’d intended to throw him down, like Five had with one of the others, but he snapped back around quickly, elbowing me in the chest.

Thinking fast, I started to flip backwards and turn, managing to build up a strong charge while simultaneously avoiding getting hit; the rain and storms that had come rolling in already left me with a bit of a buildup of electricity without moving, putting me right at the advantageous point I needed. Just for good measure, I snatched up an ornate vase on yet another of those useless tables and chucked it at the man inching his way closer, forcing him to flinch in order to protect his face from being stuck with porcelain shards. Taking that moment as my window, I sprung forward and clamped my hands down on the side of his head, relieving the burn that had taken over my arms as he screamed. It took a few seconds, but he finally thudded to the ground, unconscious.

It may not have killed him, but hopefully, it’d discourage him from messing with this family again.

Curious, I glanced out the same window Five had just moments ago, noticing Dad and Mom were still waiting for their car.

“Shit,” I breathed. “Dad.”

I turned and ran for the stairs, grabbing Diego’s arm and dragging him along with me as I moved. The stream of fleeing guests made it slightly difficult to maneuver out, and by the time we burst free into the chilly night air and met up with Five and Lila, Dad and Mom’s car was just pulling away.

“Was that him?” I gasped, still slightly winded, as I set a hand on my brother’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” he groaned. The four of us watched with baited breath, hoping the car might stop and Dad would emerge, but the dark vehicle just disappeared around the corner, not even hesitating.


	15. Brothers of Mine

A hopeless feeling buried itself deep in me, swirling around with the bitter sting from the replaying image of Lila completely turning her back on me. Tonight had been, quite possibly, the most disappointing night of my life, which said _a lot_.

“You know, I’m starting to get the feeling Dad’s avoiding us,” Five quipped, tapping his foot.

“Gee, I wonder why,” I deadpanned, leaning down slightly to meet eyes with my brother. He shook his head, clearly not wanting to focus on the fact there was a chance Dad had no earthly idea who we were.

“Hate to be the boring one, guys,” Lila piped up, “but, uh, it’s time we get the hell out of here.” Without waiting, Lila simply turned around and started to run back the way we’d snuck in.

All of a sudden, she just wanted to run away.

“When you say ‘we,’ who exactly are you referring to?” Five seethed, venom dripping from his words. I released my hands from him and moved to cross my arms against my stomach, unsure of what exactly to feel right now. Before I could really sort things out, an intense chill washed over me, causing me to shudder violently. My spasm caught Diego’s attention, who promptly removed his suit jacket and set it around my shoulders.

“Here, sis,” he whispered as he secured it, making sure it wouldn’t slip off my frame. I nodded at him in thanks, focused primarily on Lila. She had suddenly gone silent, completely devoid of a snappy comeback or well-timed insult, her jaw hanging open slightly.

“Not a lot of ambiguity in that sentence.” Her words had been sucked dry of any confidence. Was Five onto something here…?

“Listen, I don’t know who you are, or where you came from, but whatever it is, I’d advise you to return posthaste.” Diego stepped forward carefully, his eyes on the guards outside the entrance to the consulate.

“She’s right, Five. We gotta get out of here.”

“I just saved your life, you kinder-shit.” Lila’s sudden harshness caught me off-guard. Where the hell had this side of her come from… and how long would she have kept pushing it down if Five hadn’t hit the right buttons? “If I hadn’t stepped in, all that would be left of you is a blazer and some bloody socks.”

“And that’s the problem,” Five observed. “You’re too good. You ask too many questions. You know too much. And you fight like you know what you’re doing.”

Slowly, the reality Five was presenting started to dawn on me. She’d taken down a man twice her size without any sort of issue just a few moments ago, something an average person certainly wasn’t capable of. Not to mention, she’d taken such a sudden and vested interest in my brother, a person who’d done quite a bit of wrong across several points in time. Her interest couldn’t be a mere coincidence…

Yet, when I met with her lost, afraid brown eyes, I felt my insides melt again. I hadn’t just stopped liking her—I wasn’t sure that would ever happen. I didn’t want this to be the end of us, but the realizations that had dawned on me tonight certainly threw a rock into our relationship. I’d already dealt with a liar of a father my entire life; I didn’t want that from my girlfriend.

“He’s got a point,” Diego muttered, now looking to Lila with caution.

“So I know how to handle myself, and that makes me the bad guy?” I didn’t like the way she phrased that. Not that she was going to make Five backtrack, but that was clearly her intention.

“Whoever you are, you’re in my way.” Five’s eyes flashed back to me momentarily, shivering as I pulled Diego’s jacket closer against me. Stupid November… “I hope you understand my sister’s protectiveness goes both ways. If I see you again, I _will_ kill you.”

Leaving his threat hanging in the air, Five brushed past Lila’s shoulder and headed toward the bridge, Diego following not far behind.

The two of us were left staring, neither daring to be the first to speak. My brain fought a war against itself, torn between the genuinely good points my brother had brought up, and the love I felt for her. It had come on so fast, but that didn’t make it any less real. I felt so alive and happy around her, like she was meant to be in my life…

…but the scene from earlier came swimming back to the surface, reminding me she’d completely abandoned me when I needed her.

“Mina, we need to go.” Her voice broke slightly, and I had to fight down the overwhelming urge in me to hold her and try to assure her things were going to work out.

“I was getting my ass handed to me back there. You helped Five, not me.” She shrank back slightly as I approached. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful he’s safe, but… why did you look right at me, and then just up and run away?”

“Because he’s a kid and you’re a grown woman.” The answer came too fast. Something inside of me felt like it had shattered, and I started to tear up, the bitter heat of the water fueling the hurt. “Bloody act like one.”

I tried my best to muster up a response, but nothing wanted to come out. Overwhelmed with anger, I just moved past her, unwilling to stand here for another moment.

“Mina, I—I—we shouldn’t—“ I whipped around, the sleeves of the jacket rustling against my side.

“You know what? I’m used to dealing with liars, Lila.” The tears completely caught up with me as I shook my head, openly flowing down my cheeks. “But I like it better when I know what they’re lying about.”

Going completely against my nature, I simply walked away, not wanting to hear her attempt to dig herself out of the hole. I hoped this would pass, and she could be honest with me because… I really did love her, but I just couldn’t deal with any of this right now.

“Oh, come on, Mina. Really? You’re just gonna walk away? Mina.”

I refused to stop as I met up with Five and Diego, throwing myself into the back seat of the car we’d parked in the bushes. I had intended to sit there by myself, trying to hide my crying from my brothers the best I could, but the door on the driver’s side opened, and in slid Five, staring at me with what appeared to be an apologetic look on his face. This wasn’t his fault, and I hoped he didn’t think that; he was just doing what he did best.

Not long after Diego started the car and pulled away, I felt a weight on my arm, drawing my attention downward. To the best of his ability, Five had leaned over, clearly intending to go for the shoulder. But, he couldn’t quite make it, so instead, his head was pushing against my arm. For a moment, I felt warmth again. When I looked at him here, his eyes fighting to remain open, he just looked like an innocent kid, his guard completely lowered; he was just a little brother trying to make his big sister feel better.

As a smile helplessly inched across my lips, I scooted down in my seat, allowing Five’s head to rest more comfortably. Once he’d adjusted appropriately, I rested my own head against the top of his for a second, silently assuring him I was going to be okay. At one point, I noticed Diego glance back at the two of us in the rearview mirror, smirking. He’d _definitely_ use this against Five at some point, which would be a terrible mistake on his part. But who was I to stop an ass-whooping, especially when it was against Diego?

Looming outlines of trees against the starry sky and occasional streetlights slowly faded into sidewalks and buildings, bringing us back onto the bustling street the three of us had become so accustomed to. Even now, close to midnight, men roamed the streets—a few with women on their arms, but most strode with clusters of their coworkers or companions, all dressed nearly the same. Every now and then, a head would tilt back with laughter, or a large cloud of cigarette smoke would escape from within, but even with our broken window, their conversations remained a complete mystery.

It had always been odd to me, watching people just go on with their lives, completely clueless as to what was incoming—the second time around didn’t make it any easier. Part of me wished I hadn’t been burdened with the knowledge, and I could just go about my life as freely as the passersby on the streets. Maybe by now, I could have found a new job, so long as the word hadn’t been completely spread through such small neighborhoods (a thing that unfortunately seemed too likely); perhaps I could have moved, gone to some other state, and completely started over. Four days was a pretty significant amount of time; a lot could get done by then.

Then again, the end of the world always brought my family back together, something I always looked forward to. I’d spent too long fretting over whether any of them were alive or not, and this lifted that tiny bit of the burden off my shoulders. At this rate, it was clear to me I couldn’t have both a normal life and be with my family, which wasn’t exactly ideal. But when had any of our lives been anything short of disappointing?

Not to mention, had Five never found me, there was a chance I never would have met Lila. There was always the possibility we would have passed each other briefly on the street, maybe accidentally bumped shoulders before muttering brief apologies and rushing away out of embarrassment, but I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to know her. She was still beautiful, and compassionate, and lively and fun, and deep down, I could tell she gave a shit…

… but I couldn’t keep going if she was going to hide something important from me.

“Hey, Mina.” I snapped my head up from its position against my hand, looking to Diego with wide eyes. “We’re back.”

I started to move my arms up to stretch out my back, which had been hunched over far longer than I would have liked, when Five’s head suddenly thudded down onto my lap, dead asleep. I couldn’t help but laugh, though I tried to keep it quiet.

“He always says he doesn’t have time to rest, and yet…” I gestured my hand down toward my brother. “…he’s always the first of us to fall asleep.”

Trying my best to keep my movements small, I got Five up into my arms—yet again—and managed to get him all the way upstairs and laid down on the one bed in the place. This time, thankfully, he didn’t wake up, clearly completely exhausted. Letting out a sigh of relief, I turned and headed out into the kitchen, expecting to fall asleep on the couch. But, when I got into the living room, a familiar, large figure was already sitting there, staring at Diego as though he were a foreign object.

Despite the years of resentment I’d harbored toward him, I rushed over and pulled him into a tight hug, losing my shoes at some point in the process. I’d caught him off-guard, but after a couple seconds, he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to him.

“Luther,” I sighed, pushing away and taking a seat beside him on the couch. “How’d you find us?”

“A lot of asking around.” To my surprise, some of his words came out slurred, and once I got a closer look, I noticed his pupils were pretty dilated.

“Uh… are you okay?” My eyes drifted past him a moment, spotting Elliott completely passed out on a dentist’s chair. “What did you two do while we were gone?” Luther glanced back at the sleeping conspirator.

“Oh, uh, nothing. Just… talked for a long time.” I raised an eyebrow, still not completely believing him, but I chose to let it go. More than anything else, I just didn’t have the energy to press him further. Tonight’s events still weighed heavy on my mind.

Besides, there were more pressing issues at hand. Luther’s appearance here meant we were that much closer to being able to get everyone else together.

“Hey, out of curiosity, have you seen any of the others? Aside from Vanya, of course.” It took him a moment to answer, his eyes rolling back into his head slightly as he attempted to fish the memory out of the back of his mind.

“Allison found me recently,” he answered, his voice cracking slightly. “I actually found her first… got someone to look for her address.”

Well, that provided at least a little bit of an answer as to what was going on with him.

“And she knows where Klaus is, based on the way she was talking.”

_Klaus…_

Jesus Christ, I hadn’t heard that name in what seemed like ages. Sure, I’d said it myself, but it was like I didn’t register who it was until now. I hadn’t realized _just_ how much I had missed my more eccentric brother up to this point, causing the already dull ache to grow into a full-on stabbing sensation. Although I wanted to be happy, knowing everyone was accounted for and attainable, I couldn’t muster up the smile I’m sure Luther expected from me.

“Mina, are you okay?” He leaned over slightly, getting me to look at him. I shook my head, both as an answer, and out of slight shock. Luther had really changed…

“It’s been a long night,” I sighed, my eyes drifting to Diego. He stared right back, catching on quickly, much to my relief.

“We got attacked while we were out,” Diego explained. “These three bulky assholes. We got them down for a while, but I doubt that’s the last we’ll see of them.” Luther nodded slowly, needing a little extra time to process.

As he did, I bounced my eyes back and forth between my two brothers. A strange thought occurred to me right then, causing me to let out a singular chuckle. Both of them turned their attention to me, distracted from their small talk.

“What’s up with you now?” Diego questioned, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

“Do you remember those parties Dad used to throw when we were kids?” Luther and Diego both nodded. “And how we’d be able to talk to people for a little bit—if we were lucky—but after a while, Mom would send us to bed? And a group of people would always stick around after the other guests left, and they’d sit around and talk to Dad about… who knows what, after the kids had gone to bed?” I still had their attentions. “We’re those people now.”

Slowly, the realization dawned on them, varying degrees of amusement and confusion crossing their faces. In our youth, we’d so desperately hoped to maybe, one night, be allowed to stay up a little later and be let in on the forbidden world we’d been denied for so long—and now that we were in it… it was _wildly_ boring.

We’d turned into a bunch of stuffy adults.

Right as I opened my mouth to point that out, a large yawn escaped, and I felt the little bit of life that realization had brought me drain away, leaving me feeling limp. My brothers took notice, and almost immediately, Diego got up to turn out all the lights—save for a singular lamp—while Luther started to track down blankets and pillows for everyone. Before I even got the chance to stand up and try to help, they’d completely taken care of everything, leaving me to just curl up under a knitted blanket—still in my dress, but at that point, I really didn’t give a shit—and close my eyes.


	16. A Different Sort of Shanking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3 chapters again?! Have I lost my mind???
> 
> No, I just REALLY wanted to get all our favorite siblings back together again. And that’s about to happen. Get ready for LOTS of sibling moments ;)

The aroma of bitter, stinging coffee and sizzling eggs against pats of butter stirred me from sleep, forcing my stomach to rumble. My gown rustled against my skin, leaving little pricking sensations as the tulle underneath slowly fell away and revealed the indents it had created across my legs. My eyes were still attempting to adjust as I made my way into what had been Elliott’s room and retrieved my clothes, folded up neatly in the corner, as I had left them. Spiders felt like they were crawling down my legs as I peeled my dress off and cast it to the ground, allowing myself to slip back into the _far_ more comfortable skirt and sweater I’d had on for the past couple of days. I guess I was just going to have to get used to not changing for a while; it’s not like my brothers were any better.

When I emerged, Five grabbed the two mugs sitting on the counter behind him and passed one to me, the aroma of lemon and hibiscus wafting into my nostrils. Luther continued to scramble the eggs he’d started making, while Diego paced around the kitchen. For a moment, a sentimental smile crossed my face.

“No, no, I don’t understand,” Diego muttered, shaking his head. “They keep following me.” My brows furrowed as I continued to follow his movements with my eyes

“Wait, who?” I inquired, unsure of what exactly I had walked into.

“Those Dutch sociopaths,” he snapped.

“They’re Swedish, you idiot,” Five corrected. “Hired guns paid to eradicate us before we do any more damage to this timeline.”

“Yeah, but why now?” Diego leered in our direction, causing me to squirm uncomfortably. He always had the gaze of daggers… no pun intended. “I mean, I’m…” He snapped his fingers, putting emphasis on whatever was about to follow. “…fine for three months until you showed up.”

“Yeah, I was here for a year and no one messed with me,” Luther chimed in. I suddenly felt intense pressure on me as all three of my brothers looked in my direction, expecting me to speak up. I could feel the kid on my left staring with a desperate intensity, hoping I would defend him, while my two adult brothers in front of me pushed me to support their argument.

Trouble was, I couldn’t necessarily disagree with them.

“Well…” I trailed off, grimacing. I watched as Five’s expression melted into one of disheartening, brutal betrayal, immediately causing my stomach to knot itself up with guilt. “Look, me getting fired had nothing to do with you; neither did anything that happened with Lila last night.”

“Lila?” I chose to ignore Luther’s attempted inquiry for the sake of continuing my narrative.

“There’s just never going to come a moment when I like getting punched in the gut repeatedly with brass knuckles, and those guys wouldn’t have come after us without your influence. _However,_ I understand that this is bigger than you, and it’s not completely your fault we’re being tracked down and hunted.” Thankfully, that seemed to help, and Five fell back into glaring at his brothers.

“Even if it _was_ my fault, which it isn’t, we only have six days until the end of the world,” Diego threw his arms up slightly, frustrated at the diversion in the conversation, “and the closest anyone’s gotten to Dad was that driveway at the consulate.”

In the background of this drama, Luther stopped stirring the eggs for no reason, his face falling slightly. I cocked my head slightly, waiting for him to say something as he slowly turned to look at the three of us, a sort of terror pervading the way he stared the three of us down.

“Well,” he sighed, “that’s not exactly true.” Intrigued, Five removed himself from the doorway and moved to stand next to Diego. Meanwhile, I jumped on my opportunity and grabbed some plates from the cabinets, maneuvering past Luther do divide up at least some of the eggs for his other three siblings.

“What do you mean?” Five and Diego continued to give Luther a stare-down until he relented and began to explain.

“I saw him.”

I set down two plates at the table, prompting my brothers to make their way to the table and eat. Luther didn’t have much of an issue with that, grabbing onto the pan he’d used to cook so he could eat right out of it. As I leaned against the doorframe, Five cast his eyes across to me, silently asking if I wanted to sit, but I shook my head.

“When I first landed here—in 1962—I didn’t know where else to go. It took me forever to even figure out I was in Dallas, and I couldn’t find any of you, so I decided the best thing would be to get on a bus and try to go home.” I shook my head; there wasn’t a scenario where I saw that ending well. “The whole ride there, I kept trying to think of what I could say to him, but in the end, I figured it’d be best to just come outright with the crazy—that I was his son—and hope he believed me.

“When I got there, he was hosting some sort of party, just like the ones when we were kids; he was surrounded by this big group of people, but I decided to go up to him anyways. He was talking about the end of the world, funnily enough. Anyways, I figured, maybe, once he’d stepped out of earshot, he’d talk to me, but the entire time, he just denied that he would ever even think of having children. He went on this whole tirade, and at the end of it, I couldn’t think of anything to say except… that I took a bus; that’s when he told me and ‘the stench of failure that encircled me’ to get out of the house.”

I sighed, eyeing Luther with sympathy. He hadn’t expected any sort of ‘I love you’ or ‘good to see you, son’—he just wanted someone who would believe his story.

“That’s pathetic,” Diego scoffed, shaking his head. Even after his brother opened up, he still felt it necessary to mock him; Dad really had done a number on their relationship.

“Yeah, well, at least he didn’t shank my ass,” Luther quipped as he resumed shoving eggs down his throat.

“No, bro, he shanked your heart.” I momentarily glanced to my left and smiled as Elliott entered the room, just catching the tail-end of the conversation. It took me a second to register exactly what Diego had just said, but once I did, I snickered, unable to help myself.

“Is that my bathrobe?” Elliott asked, making his presence known to the rest of my family. Luther stared at him for a solid three seconds before glancing down at the article of clothing he’d donned, and he shook his head.

“No.” Elliott didn’t really seem to believe him, but he took it anyways, likely because Luther’s massive size made arguing with him slightly intimidating to newcomers.

“Look, who cares what he shanked?” Five snapped, bringing us back to the purpose of the conversation. “He knows something about time travel.”

“Um.” I laughed as Elliott raised his hand, a child lost in the middle of class. “Wait, why don’t you just do your thing and, uh, time travel us out?”

My brothers and I exchanged a glance, before Five’s eyes completely fell away. He let out a loud sigh and got up from his seat, making his way over to the pot to pour himself more coffee.

“Anyone care to explain?” He seemed to be avoiding the events of the past altogether. Though it caused that aching sensation to return to my chest, I decided to be the one to start things off.

“First time he tried, he got lost in the apocalypse,” I muttered, tapping my fingers against the side of the mug to distract myself.

“Second time, he ended up without hair on his balls.” My eyebrows shot up as I shook my head and rested my forehead against my fingers. Why did Diego have to phrase it like that?

“Last time I tried, I scattered my family across three years in Dallas, Texas, possibly triggering a doomsday.” The trembling regret in Five’s voice rang loud and clear. “Any more questions, Elliott?”

“Uh, no,” he answered quickly, stepping down,

“You’re missing the big picture. Dad is the ringleader of a sinister cabal that’s planning to kill the president.” My eyes rolled all the way back into my head, fed up with Diego’s bullshit. This fascination with Kennedy was just a distraction from the bigger goal, and although wanting to save a man’s life was honorable, the possible consequences it could reap just weren’t worth it.

“A cabal?” Luther blinked at his brother, distracted.

“Ignore him,” I barked, pointing to the back of Diego’s head.

“Look, the way I see it, we only have one option.”

“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?” Luther challenged.

“It’s time to get the Umbrella Academy back together.” Despite the dire circumstances, a smirk crawled onto my face. I could feel energy spreading all the way down into my toes and fingers, causing a bubbling sensation—not the same as when I built up a charge.

“Hell yeah,” I encouraged. “Family meeting.”

“Okay, then. Can one of you get Allison?” Luther refused to look up from his eggs now, intriguing Diego. He leaned forward, offering his brother an almost taunting smile. Meanwhile, Five and I met eyes and shook our heads.

“You two still a thing?” Even Diego seemed a little weirded out by the thought of that. “Do we need to talk?”

“No, she’s married,” Luther responded shortly. My heart tapped a strange sort of beat, releasing a few short, strained breaths. Allison was married, again… and we’d missed it. Sure, the first wedding had been an… interesting family reunion, but nonetheless, I’d loved meeting Patrick, which was just an awkward thought now, for several reasons.

Allison hadn’t known we were all in Dallas, so it wasn’t her fault, but it still hurt, deep down.

“Whoa, dude, that’s rough.”

“I can handle it.” Luther’s chuckle made me think anything but.

“I’ll get her,” Five offered, setting his mug down. “Can you get Vanya without, uh, squeezing her to death?” The reminder of what happened in 2019 made me feel uneasy; even if Luther had interacted with her and hadn’t harmed her, I still didn’t trust it.

“I’ve got Vanya,” I piped up. “Can you get Klaus, too? I’ve just got a really long drive.” Five nodded.

Before he jumped, the thought of our family finally coming back together took over my mind, and a big, stupid grin overwhelmed my face. I tried my best to fight it back down, but it vigilantly managed to break back through.

“Mina? You good?” Even as I looked to Diego, it wouldn’t go away.

“She’s just excited.” Though I didn’t look back at him, I could hear the smile in Five’s voice. “I’ll be back soon.” Right as he blinked away, Elliott spoke up.

“Wait! D— What should I do?” With Five gone, he turned to the rest of us. I, however, was more concerned with getting ready to head out in the stolen car. Lila had walked me through how to hotwire it at one point, so thankfully, I wouldn’t be lost now that she wasn’t here.

I pushed aside the thoughts that came rolling in at the recollection of her name, choosing to focus on the task at hand.

“Prepare for company,” Diego smirked. With that taken care of, I slipped on my shoes and headed toward the door.

“Luther, you went to go see her right?” He nodded meekly. “If I give you a map, can you show me where it is?”

“Yeah, sure.” Thankfully, he remembered the exact roads to take, all the way to a farmhouse a good three hours from here. Jesus Christ…

“All right, I’ll be back at some point.” I whipped around, pointing an accusatory finger at my two remaining brothers. “Don’t destroy the place while I’m gone.”

Before either of them could get a protest in, I turned on my heel and sprinted down the stairs, jumping into the car and starting it up. Carefully, I unfolded the map Luther had marked up for me and set it against the dashboard, allowing me to take a glance at it without having to completely remove the road from my view.

I made it all the way to the corn field where Five and I had found her, when dread started to crawl across my skin, forming tiny, little goosebumps on the surface. The last time I’d seen Vanya, things hadn’t gone so well. I could hope she’d let things go, but Vanya’s emotions were a powerful force, meaning they were likely still heavy on her mind. Would she even want to see me again?

God, I hoped so… I didn’t know what I would do if she never forgave me.

Right as I was approaching what felt like the edge of the known universe, I made the final turn, and the dirt roads turned into a patted-down driveway. Perfectly-trimmed grass swayed in the breeze behind fences, further drawing my attention to the large, slightly decrepit barn and bright yellow cottage just off to the left. Clothes danced back and forth on a line, strung up to dry after a day of laundry. When I opened the door and got out, a few chickens squawked loudly at me, causing me to jump a little.

All of this seemed so… domestic. It just felt weird, considering no one in our family ever really got to have a life like this. Part of me felt bad that I would be ripping Vanya away from it, if she would even come with me, but I’d make sure she could at least come back one more time.

With trembling hands, I approached the front door and rapped it gently a couple times before stepping back, rocking back and forth on my heels. I could hear voices and scuffling from inside, but it was a while before a tall, blonde woman in a striking, yellow sundress answered the door, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Can I help you?” Strangely, it felt as though her words were meant to come off as slightly hostile. It caught me off-guard, causing my purpose for being there to completely leave my brain for a bit. I started to form words, but it wasn’t until I cleared my throat that I was able to get anything cohesive out.

“Uh, I’m… I’m here to see Vanya?” The woman didn’t relent, even a bit. “I’m her sister, and I just—there’s a family emergency, and we need her.” My eyes widened as she crossed her arms.

“Am I just supposed to believe, after everything she’s been through, that the first person who shows up at the door is—“

Thankfully, right then, Vanya stepped into view behind the woman, her eyes flashing with recognition. 

“Mina?” With the familiarity established, the woman backed off, her posture immediately melting into something far more friendly.

“Says she’s your sister… is that right?” Vanya nodded, smiling as she made her way over to me. “I’m sorry about that, just now,” she quickly apologized.

“I get it,” I shrugged. “You just wanted to make sure she’d be safe and sound.” The three of us stood there a moment, an awkward sort of tension radiating between the two women.

“I’m Sissy,” she finally introduced, sticking her hand out for me to shake. I graciously took it, though I was still unsure as to why she and Vanya seemed so stiff around each other.

“Mina Hargreeves,” I replied. “I’m really sorry to do this, but I need to steal her for a little while. Is that all right?” Sissy waved her hand dismissively.

“Absolutely.” Without another word, Sissy turned and closed the door, perhaps a bit too harshly. Immediately, I turned to Vanya, launching into an explanation.

“Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry about yesterday. I know Five and I should have been honest with you, we were just worried.” Vanya didn’t say a word. “Five’s off getting our brother Klaus and our sister Allison; Luther and Diego are already back at Elliott’s. The only person we’re missing is you—and without you… we’re not as strong.” I gently reached out and placed a hand on her arm. “We _need_ you, Vanya.”

Something still seemed off about her, but she silently gave in, following me all the way back to the car. The worry of what was going on with her continued to nag at me, and although I tried to hold it back, I couldn’t help myself.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, stealing a glance at her for a split second. Vanya let out a long, drawn-out sigh, then she finally spoke.

“Sissy and I… we…” She trailed off, but when I looked at her again, the way her eyebrows moved immediately tipped me off to what happened. My jaw dropped a little, a smile cutting through over everything else. I hadn’t known, but I didn’t want to focus on that part—after all, this wasn’t about me.

“Oh, my God, Vanya! Holy shit, that’s so sweet. You and your farm girl.” A deep blush crept up her cheeks. “What’s so bad about that?”

“She’s married,” Vanya answered without hesitation. My eyes widened as my joy dribbled away. “Her husband, Carl… he was a real asshole this morning. I tried to stand up for Sissy, but she just snapped at me.”

I didn’t have experience in a situation like that, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel bad for her. From the sounds of it, Vanya was finally opening herself up to love, but the reality of the time we were stuck in got in the way of her ability to be with Sissy.

That part I understood too well…

As cautiously as I could, I reached over and squeezed her hand tight.

“I’m always here, if you ever need to vent.” Vanya remained silent for another moment, before she spoke words that made my heart soar.

“Thanks, sis.”


	17. An Assembly of Half-Wits

Despite the rest of my siblings’ posture, I remained sat up straight, refusing to allow myself to slouch. My eyes couldn’t remove themselves from the disgusting concoction Elliott had placed in front of the four of us; I could make out some orange slices, and a few round cherries suppressed down by the white drizzles of… sour cream?

Just looking at it made me want to gag.

“Y’all know, Jell-O used to be a delicacy.” Elliott’s legs swung back and forth as he spoke. “You know, in order to make it, you gotta boil down a whole mess of hooves… you know, horses, pigs, cows, it doesn’t matter.”

Momentarily, I drifted my gaze up to Diego as he sat across from me, watching as he removed the holster he used to store his knives from his side and plucked one of the shining blades from its perch. Strangely, it looked like one of them was missing.

“But not everybody has a mess of hooves just lying around. It wasn’t until, uh… a couple of sassy New Yorkers figured out how to dry it out so that the rest of us could have a… a chance to enjoy this ambrosia.”

‘Enjoy’ certainly wasn’t the word I’d use to describe what I would be doing through this experience. At the same time, he seemed so excited to be serving something he’d made to his guests, even if three of us had been here for a little bit, I couldn’t bring myself to say no.

“If we eat some, will you shut up?” Diego sighed, his agitation evident across his face.

“Maybe,” Elliott shrugged, much to Diego’s displeasure. “Here.”

Luther and I both grimaced as Elliott dug the spoon deep into the amalgamation of various foods, throwing them into each of the five bowls. Unable to look at the ghastly sight for another moment, I forced my eyes away from Elliott and turned my attention to Vanya, who looked as though she was about to slide off the couch at any moment.

“How are you feeling?” I asked quietly. Her facial expression barely moved as she looked up at me.

“Pretty shitty, to be honest,” she whispered.

“Where would you say you are on a scale from one to… ending all life on this planet.” Luther and I glared at Diego as he tossed a knife up and down, sending the nonverbal threat straight to our sister.

“Really?” Vanya groaned.

“Diego, put the knife away, you idiot,” Luther scoffed. “She’s fine.” In spite of the circumstances, I smiled for a moment. It was a little weird to hear Luther defending Vanya, but… no less heartwarming.

“The last time I saw this one, she had me suspended in midair, sucking the life out of me with energy tentacles. I think I’m allowed a little time to process.” I flinched slightly as he stopped the movements of his knife and pointed it in our direction. Vanya, however, didn’t appear phased even in the slightest.

“Oh, I would love to see any energy tentacle.” I turned to Elliott and shook my head, mouthing the word ‘no’ to diffuse anything of that nature before it got the chance to get off the ground.

“I don’t remember what I did, but I’m sorry…” She paused, gesturing her hands up slightly. “If…if that means anything.” Thankfully, Diego stood down, lowering his knife and resting his arm against the chair.

“It does.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, even though the situation had leaned in the right direction.

“You’re such an asswipe sometimes, Diego.” My two brothers looked to me with shocked expressions.

“Whoa, Mina, what’s with the insults today?”

I sighed, shaking my head. It had absolutely nothing to do with them, but in all honesty, I hadn’t realized just how much the incident in question had been bothering me. I tried my best to push everything out of my mind and focus on my family, but memories of my, albeit short, time with Lila would pop up every now and then and force a wedge right under my ribcage.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I’m just going through a lot right now. There’s this… girl that I like. I thought that she liked me, but it turns out—“

Before I got the chance to finish, the gentle tinkling of the bell Elliott had attached to the entrance of the television shop danced up to us, indicating the last missing pieces of our family were here… hopefully.

“Oh, thank God.” I rolled my eyes as all of us pushed ourselves up from our seats.

“Thanks for the two-way street, Luther.”

The last little bits of anger I clung to fell away completely as I leaned against the railing, casting my eyes downward. My heart jumped in my throat at the sight of the two tall figures trotting in beside my younger brother. The woman on the very right stood tall, demanding the attention of whomever looked to her, perfectly groomed and still overwhelmingly stunning. Directly to her left, a man whose hair had cascaded down to his shoulders wobbled back and forth.

My knuckles turned bright white as I gripped the metal railing, but I didn’t give a damn. The moment my eyes met with Klaus’, it felt as though my heart was about to crawl out of my throat and drop onto the ground below. The reality of the situation crept up faster and faster, forcing the biggest, dumbest grin onto my face.

My whole family… we were here… we were alive.

“I know this is impossible, but… did we all get sexier?”

And, thankfully, it didn’t seem like any of us had changed that much. Klaus certainly hadn’t, at the very least. As he waved at me, I managed to pry one of my hands away from its support system and offer a tiny one back to him.

“Vanya,” Allison whispered, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. I guess she had no way of knowing whether Vanya had survived everything that happened to her, so this must have come as a pretty big shock… the good kind, of course.

“I can’t believe I have another sister.”

I nearly tripped over myself a few times as I rushed down the stairs, pushing Diego aside as I barreled straight for Klaus. Good God, it had been so long since I’d seen him, so for him to be standing in front of me, right within arms’ reach… part of me worried I’d get to him, and that’s when I’d shoot awake, erasing everything that just happened.

But my arms wrapped firmly around my brother’s torso as I nearly collided right into him. He stumbled a little at the sudden impact, but just a second later, he lifted me off the ground a bit and then hugged me tight, affirming everything was real. I didn’t hold back when I started to cry, overwhelmed with emotion at the moment.

“Holy shit, Klaus,” I gasped. “You have no idea how much I _missed_ you.”

“Aw, Mina.” If it was even possible, he pulled me tighter against him. “I didn’t even know if you were alive. I got so worried, I thought… but you’re here! You’re here, and you’re…” He hesitated, eyeing me cautiously through the hug. I knew why he paused, but I just shook my head, smiling at him.

“It’s okay, you can say it,” I assured him. “I’m all good now.”

“You look so normal,” he smiled. “So healthy.”

“Thanks,” I laughed. “Two years has made a world of difference.”

That’s when I got one whiff of his breath, and immediately recoiled slightly. The stench of alcohol was so strong, I questioned whether it was saliva or vodka that broke down the food in his mouth.

“Oh, you are drunk,” I gagged, trying my best not to let it bother me… for now. I still wasn’t going to let go.

“Yeah. No, just a little, just a few…” Klaus sighed. “There have been a lot of times… I wish you were there with me.” I glanced up at him and nodded, understanding what he was trying to get at.

“I bet. Living in this time really sucks.”

For a moment, my eyes moved past my brother, and I suddenly felt the compelling need to drift to my sisters, requiring that last little bit of comfort. Even if Allison and I hadn’t had the best relationship over the years, I still missed her like _hell_.

Besides, Klaus was already sort of dragging me in that direction.

“Oh, that is so sweet.”

Just moments later, I found myself pressed against Allison’s side as Klaus swept the four of us into a group hug. I laid my head against her shoulder, pushing it maybe a little too close to her neck. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind.

“It’s so good to see you, Allison,” I sighed as Klaus planted a kiss on the top of Vanya’s head.

“You too, Mina. And you’re… better.” I nodded vigorously. The compliment didn’t really come out the way she intended, but I didn’t care.

“Hi, Vanny,” Klaus whispered. With our greetings finally coming full circle, the four of us pushed away, though I somehow found Klaus and my arms still linked.

“Klaus, is Ben here?” Five inquired from across the room. He was trying his best to keep his expression neutral, but I could see the content smile trying to push through every now and then.

“Oh, uh… no,” Klaus denied. “No, unfortunately, ghosts can’t time travel.”

That didn’t really seem all that convincing, given that Klaus had told me Ben was always with him, but the man was drunk, so maybe he just couldn’t see him right now.

“All right, then,” Five shrugged. “Let’s get down to business.”

Klaus practically dragged me up the stairs as we followed Vanya, meeting most of our siblings at the top. Allison and Diego lingered for a moment, just sort of staring at each other for a second; it was then it occurred to me I hadn’t seen them speak to each other yet.

“Hey, Diego,” Allison called out, trying to get her brother’s attention. “Can’t say hi to nobody?” Caught a little off-guard, Diego started to turn and head toward the stairs, prompting his sister to do the same.

“Hi, Allison,” he muttered, barely audible.

“What was that?” she teased, a big grin on her face.

“Hi, Allison!”

“Thank you!”


	18. Three Times

Despite my excitement to be with Klaus again, I still settled in near Five, leaning against the plush chair off to his right, which Diego soon rested against as well. He popped up in front of our siblings, adjusting his blazer a couple times before he felt comfortable addressing the masses.

“All right. First off, I wanna say I’m sorry.” He eyed each of the people in front of him with the urgency and enthusiasm of a child, but something buried deep back held a much heavier burden. “I know I really screwed the pooch on this whole ‘going-back-in-time-and-getting-stuck thing.” No one responded, but I noticed a few of our siblings shake their heads or roll their eyes. “But the real kick in the pants here is we brought the end of the world back here with us.”

Klaus immediately halted in his movements, shockingly finding that more important than pouring himself another drink. His eyes nearly popped out of his head as he turned and stared at our youngest brother, simultaneously confused and appalled.

“Oh, my God, again?” he sighed, almost exasperated with the prospect of chasing another apocalypse. “All of you knew? Why am I always the last one to find out about the—“ Klaus gasped suddenly, a new realization popping into his mind. “Oh, my God. My cult is gonna be so pissed. Five! I told them we had until 2019.”

I’d like to say I was shocked by the revelation, even disgusted. I wanted to think that I would push my head back and raise an eyebrow, silently questioning the choices Klaus had made now that he was presented with the opportunity to start over in the 1960s.

But, in all honesty, nothing about the idea of Klaus being a cult leader even _remotely_ surprised me.

“We have until Monday,” Five informed him, devoid of any regret or confusion. “We have six days.”

“Is it Vanya?” Allison and I scoffed as Klaus took a sip of the alcohol he’d resumed pouring.

“Klaus,” my sister warned.

“What? It’s usually Vanya.” Vanya, no longer wanting to be the subject of familial ridicule, turned her attention to Five.

“Do you have any leads, Five?” she asked, silencing everyone else. My brother cast a glance in my direction, signaling me to pick up the nearly-empty folder on the seat of the chair and pass it to him, so he could hand it off to our sisters.

“Yeah, we have one.” Allison’s jaw fell slightly when she opened up the object of interest and looked at the photograph clipped inside. 

“Holy shit, is that Dad?” she gawked, shifting slightly to allow Vanya and Klaus to have a look themselves.

“Yeah,” Diego sneered. “And he’s standing on the grassy knoll.” Vanya’s brows furrowed, unsure of why what was just some patch of grass the her was so significant. “Diego, Mina, and I have been trying to talk to Dad about what exactly this means. So far, we’ve got nothing.”

“Not nothing,” Diego interjected quickly. With one glance to the side, I noticed that crazed look was beginning to envelop his eyes, causing me to tense up. “He’s planning to kill Kennedy.”

“Maybe,” Five dismissed. “But we don’t know who or what sets doomsday in motion. Could be Kennedy, could be something entirely independent. But if we know something changes the timeline, we have to make it right again.”

“Yeah, but how are we supposed to fix it if we don’t know what’s broken?” Allison inquired, raising a legitimate point.

“Come on,” Diego snapped. “Do the math. We know Dad’s having shady-ass meetings with some shady-ass people. We know he’s on the grassy knoll in three days to kill the president. So I think we all know what we have to do.” I flinched slightly as he removed himself from the chair, moving to stand behind Five, who shrugged and nodded. “Kill Dad.”

“Find Dad.” Five spoke at the same time as Diego. My brows knitted themselves together as I fully processed what Diego had said, and I turned my head back to glare at him. He’d fallen head-first into these delusions.

While the rest of our siblings were busy trying to forget or just straight up disregard what Diego had said—which was impressive, considering our collective disdain for the man on trial—Vanya looked as though the wheels in her brain were starting to turn, piecing together the little slivers she had.

“None of us are supposed to be here, right?” she asked, partially thinking out loud. “I mean, what if it’s us?” She made a good point. We were possibly the only irregularity in this timeline—except for The Swedes, but they didn’t count in my mind—so it was entirely possible this was our fault. “Has anyone here done anything to screw up the timeline?”

Everyone suddenly fell silent, electing to take sips of their drinks or stare at another sibling, silently accusing them of a crime. Those who didn’t dare to draw their eyes to another pair shook their heads, denying any part in the potential screwing of this timeline. One could have heard a pin drop, until Luther shrugged and opened his mouth.

“Diego’s been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald,” he stated casually, as though his brother would just take that and go. But, Diego being Diego, he instead shot up an accusatory finger, throwing a revelation right back.

“And you’re working for Jack Ruby,” he barked.

“Allison has been very involved in local politics,” Klaus slurred, causing his sister to shoot her head up and roll her eyes at him.

“Okay, _you_ started a cult,” she shot back.

“Mina essentially told her friend gay rights were coming soon.” Caught off-guard, I spun on my heel and glared down at Five, crossing my arms against my chest. If he wanted to play that game, he couldn’t expect to just get away with lobbing the ball up and letting it bounce away.

“Okay, need I remind you that you told a local conspiracist about the entire future?” I spat.

“I’m—I’m just a… a nanny on a farm,” Vanya shrugged. “I don’t have anything to do with all of that.” There was no way that was possible. With this family, no one was just an insignificant puzzle piece.

“Well, maybe you do, we just don’t know it yet,” I suggested, not wanting to rule anything out. 

I snapped my head around as Diego whistled, drawing our attention back to him.

“Listen to yourselves. Everything in our new lives is connected to Kennedy. That can’t be a coincidence. Luther works for Ruby, Allison is protesting the government, Mina’s planted an idea that leads to protests soon, Dad is on the grassy knoll, Klaus is…” He trailed off, finally hitting the speed bump in his logic. “…doing something weird and pervy, but probably related. See, clearly, we were all sent back here for one special reason: saving John Fitzgerald Kennedy.”

I rolled my eyes, shifting my posture onto one hip as I glared at Diego. All at once, my siblings began to speak up, nearly drowning me in a sea of voices, but I made sure he could hear me.

“Okay, first of all, prominent LGBT rights protests didn’t start until 1966 with the ‘sip-in’, which is _long_ after Kennedy is killed; and second of all, your hero complex is so goddamn inflated by your ego that you genuinely believe you can save Kennedy. You don’t even have any concrete evidence that’s what’s going on here.”

“At least I’m doing something important,” he snapped back. “What have you been doing? Chasing around Lila like a lovesick puppy, and then the moment she does something you don’t like, you turn your back on her.” I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off. “And when you’re not doing that, you’re leaning over Five’s shoulder, watching his every move like he’s goddamn incapable.” I could feel the intense anger growing in my stomach as my fists balled up.

“You agreed something was off about her!” I screamed, unable to contain myself anymore. “You don’t have any room to talk, you piece of shit mother—“

“Guys, you all die.”

In an instant, my mounting rage fell away completely, leaving me slightly exhausted from the loss of adrenaline. Slowly, I turned to look down at Five, my insides completely crumpling as I watched his face contort, trying his best to hold back his tears. At this rate, the revelation we didn’t make it out of this wasn’t shocking anymore. But watching as Five desperately attempted to keep himself composed completely shattered me inside. He’d seen so much in the however-many-years of life he wanted to say he’d lived. What he needed was a break, but it didn’t seem like he’d ever get that now.

Everyone fell completely silent, moving and adjusting so they could look to their brother, wearing varying degrees of shock and surprise on their faces.

“I was there. I saw it.” His voice gargled. “And I wanna forget it, but I can’t. I saw Russian nukes vaporize the world with all of you in it… in a war that never happened until we brought it here. And Hazel gave his life to save us, so you may need to shut up and listen to me.”

Though it sounded like Five was about to launch into a rant, his emotions overwhelmed him suddenly, and he fell completely silent, his eyes fascinated by his shoes for no apparent reason. I looked to my siblings, who remained wide-eyed and afraid, then carefully moved and set a hand on Five’s shoulder.

“Guys, can you give us a minute?” I whispered. Without hesitating, my siblings jumped up from their seats and shuffled toward the back of Elliott’s kitchen, offering us as much privacy as this space allowed for.

Rather than attempting to push him into explaining, I simply began to pace around Five, allowing him the proper time to get himself together. Part of me was still rattled, but I needed to push that down for now, and focus on what was more important. The silence weighed heavy between the two of us as Five pulled together whatever he was going to say next, but the moment his mouth opened, it snapped back shut again, prompting me to sit on the table across from him and start the conversation. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” I muttered, trying to keep my voice low. Though Five nodded immediately, it still took him a moment to explain.

“You were all fighting together.” His voice could barely be heard, but I could still catch his words. “You guys managed to fend off most of the soldiers, and the bullets, and the tanks.” I watched as a little, bittersweet smile crossed his face. “You saw me, and you called me a little shit, but you still came over and hugged me.” I shook my head, trying to fight down my smirk for the sake of the story.

“Sounds about right.”

“But after you and Hazel said hello, the nukes came. He said we needed to go, and I wasn’t thinking about any timeline consequences, so I tried to get you to come with me. You wouldn’t.” His breaths became shaky again, speeding up. “You pushed me toward Hazel, and you told him to protect me ‘at all costs’.” Finally, he managed to look up from the ground. “The last thing I saw before we jumped was you waving as you hugged Klaus and Vanya”

Rising tears threatened to breach the surface of my eyes, only abolished by a quick swipe of my fingers. In my reality, it hadn’t happened yet—and I’d do my damn best to make sure it never happened—but somehow, I could picture everything perfectly. Every detail burned bright against my brain, throwing me out of my seat and toward my brother to envelop him in a tight hug. All the while, my brain ran rampant, words replaying in my head as they pulled themselves together and reached a horrifying conclusion.

“That’s three times I’ve died now.” I felt Five nod against my torso. “One more than the rest of our siblings.”

“It’s not that much.” It was strange to hear him in denial, especially when the topic related back to something he knew so well.

“But no detail is insignificant.”

That wasn’t helping. As important as it was in my mind, there were far more pressing matters that could assure that number wouldn’t go up any more.

“Let’s stop the end of the world, then,” I declared, leaning down to wipe away a couple of tears that slipped from his eyes. “This time, for real.”

That seemed to bring back some of his old self, and with that little bit of reassurance, I waved the rest of our family back in.

“All right, listen up,” Five ordered, forcing his siblings’ attention to him. “I don’t know if the things we’ve experienced here are all connected. I don’t know if there’s a reason for everything. But Dad will. We need to talk to him before everyone and everything we know is dead.”

Luther barely even gave the proposition a thought before he pushed himself up from his chair and started toward the staircase that led outside.

“Okay, I’m out.” I stared daggers at my brother as Five leered in his direction.

“Did you even hear me, Luther?” he demanded.

“Yeah. Yeah, I did. I heard a 58-year-old man who still wants his daddy to come and fix everything. Well, you can count me out. It’s time we all grew the hell up.” Appalled at the hypocrisy, I rested a hand against my hip and followed Luther with my eyes.

“You have no room to talk, Luther!” I shouted after him. Diego shot up and ran down the stairs after his brother, while Five blinked onto the staircase to block his way. I watched the three of them with wary eyes, prepared to strike at any moment.

“No one leaves until we figure this out,” Five declared.

I relaxed, for a second, as Luther sighed, until he suddenly grabbed Five by the vest and threw him off the stairs, only saved from injury by jumping out of the scene entirely. Furious, I started toward the stairs, but before I could get far, Allison reached out and grabbed onto my arm, holding me back.

Still, I wasn’t about to allow Luther to just get away with throwing my brother around, so I turned once, then stuck my hand out in his direction, delivering just enough of a jolt to cause him to cry out. Quickly, he averted his glare to me, but I just shrugged and smirked at him, feeling absolutely no remorse for my actions.

With my temper quelled at least a little, I focused back on Klaus, Allison, and Vanya, the only three left in front of me. Klaus had, at some point, picked up one of the ambrosia dishes and had started to eat it, somehow not repulsed by the dish. Then again, he’d clearly had a lot of alcohol, so maybe it balanced out.

“You know, I could really go for some tacos right now,” he announced suddenly, looking to his three sisters. “Allison? Tacos?” She pointed back in the direction of Diego and Luther, who had now completely vacated the premises. 

“Shouldn’t we wait?” Despite her serious question, Klaus just shrugged, brushing it off.

“You know those guys. I mean, it could take forever for them to bro it out.” His eyes shifted to Vanya. “Vanya, tacos?” She appeared much more willing.

“Is there any way that tacos are gonna cause the end of the world?” Klaus smiled as he began to get up, reaching for his precious bottle of Vodka.

“I mean, there’s only one way to find out, right?” Finally, he looked to me. “Mina, you coming?”

Though I loved the thought of getting to spend time with the siblings I had yet to catch up with, not to mention get some halfway decent food, my mind kept wandering back to Five, concerned that he hadn’t come back yet. He could have jumped anywhere, especially if he was in distress like he probably would have been as he was being tossed off the stairs. I couldn’t just sit here and wonder.

“I really should go look for Five and make sure he’s okay.” Klaus blew a raspberry in my direction, causing me to jump back slightly.

“He can take care of himself for a few hours. Come on,” he encouraged.

“You really should come with, sis,” Allison added, already looping my arm with hers.

Honestly, a couple hours away from everything was exactly what I needed. A little part of me protested, but I managed to silence it for the time being.

“Let’s get out of here.”


	19. Way Back When

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I’m putting a flashback chapter in here. It might seem kind of out of place right now, but it’ll make sense why I put it here when you read Chapter 20. For now, enjoy a little peek into what Mina got up to in the time before she went off with her family again! :)

**_Dallas, Texas_ **

**_January 20, 1961_ **

_Pain danced angrily against my spine as I slammed helplessly onto the dark pavement below me. I let myself lay there for a moment, my mind drifting away, until I reached over to my left and felt nothing but asphalt. Relaxation snapped into panic as I realized I must have dropped my brother’s arm at some point in travel; I had lost him to time yet again._

_Frantic, I shot up, electing to ignore a flash I spotted in my peripheral vision, and rushed out of the alleyway, slipping slightly thanks to those damn shoes._

_“Five?” I shouted, desperately hoping I’d spot him out in the crowd. "Klaus! Vanya!”_

_Couples, mothers with children, and individuals strolled by, casting their glances to the girl screaming seemingly random names and wearing clothes very different from theirs._

_This couldn’t have been right. Five made it sound like we were just going back to our childhood so we could fix things with Vanya. I thought that’s why, right before we jumped, we all looked 13 again. But now, all of a sudden, I was back in my 29-year-old body, and this definitely was long before our childhoods._

_“Is somethin’ wrong, doll? You look dazed.”_

_I shook my head, coming back out of my own thoughts. A woman with a bright, alluring smile and soft features cocked her head at me, eyeing me with caution. I didn’t blame her, honestly. I was standing in an alleyway, eyes bouncing around all confused, and I certainly didn’t look like any of the women strolling by on the street. Not to mention, what I was about to ask would only make me seem more insane…_

_“Um…” My voice cracked a little as the words garbled in my throat, all the moisture suddenly sucked out of it. “This is going to make me sound cracked out, but—“_

_“’Cracked out’? Honey, I’m sorry, but I can’t understand what you’re sayin’.” I took a deep breath, attempting to compose myself. I just had to get to the point and hope this woman wouldn’t call for help and get me locked up… one way or the other._

_“Could you tell me the date?” The woman let out a breathy laugh, her eyes squinting closed as she did._

_“You’re certainly a strange one.” Still, she removed the newspaper from under her arm and held it out to me, allowing me to read the date and the headline._

_‘January 20, 1961: Kennedy Inaugural to be Broadcast.’_

_19…61…_

_I slammed the newspaper down to my side._

_“Godammit.”_

**One Year Later**

The enticing scents of sweet, fluffy pancakes opened my eyelids with loving fingertips, motivating me out of bed. In the space next to me, the covers had already been tossed back, a sign the person that inhabited that side had thrown herself out suddenly. I chuckled as I shook my head, admiring how she had the motivation to get up before the sun to make sure she accomplished everything for the day before she headed off to work. Even on a pleasant but chilly Saturday like today, she kept up the same schedule, not wanting to throw herself off. I, on the other hand, was enjoying the freedom from the restraints my life before had placed on me. No one expected me at class by seven a.m., my siblings weren’t jumping on my bed to wake me up the second the clock struck six (although, admittedly, that was only Ben), and no overbearing father was screaming at us to get out of our beds before the sun came up; I never thought I’d love working at night so much, but goddamn, I never wanted to go back.

With an enthusiastic flair, I shoved my feet into the pair of slippers waiting patiently at the foot of the bed, then pranced down the stairs, eager to see the face I’d been deprived of this morning.

Surrounded by the angelic glow of sunbeams shooting in through the window, there she stood, just turning the stove off. The yellow light gave her red locks a sort of golden sheen, the specks of dust floating around her somehow only enhancing her angelic glow. Even after all this time, the moment my eyes rested on her, I felt my stomach begin to twist itself up, and my heart threatened to burst free from my chest. It certainly didn’t help when she turned around and flashed that welcoming smile, her blue eyes falling on me in my wrinkled pajamas, short hair a mess atop my head.

I’d never understand how I got this lucky.

As carefully as I could, I made my way over to the set of curtains resting by the window that opened up to the street and gently pulled them shut, making sure to take every precaution in this god forsaken neighborhood.

“Good morning, Helen,” I greeted, feeling safe enough to stand by her side and press a kiss against her cheek. Almost immediately, she leaned her head against my chest, prompting me to set one arm around her waist as she reached over and moved the pan she’d been using off the burner.

“’Mornin’, doll.” I inhaled sharply, my heart skipping a beat. Normally, I hated that nickname—it felt condescending, no matter what gender’s mouth it came out of— but there was something about the way Helen said it that made it so charming.

I never thought I would let myself be this in love. Sure, I’d had crushes on different girls throughout my life, but I’d always come up with some sort of excuse: I had to focus on my dancing, I didn’t have time with my busy schedule, we’d have to get back to the Academy eventually and pretend we didn’t know what the world outside was like when enjoyed.

I’d caught myself doing the same thing when Helen first took me in; I kept telling myself I had to get out there and look for my siblings, and hope they were alive and in Dallas—not that I wasn’t willing to go to any end of the earth to find them. When I’d first emerged from the alley I’d dropped into, she just happened to be the first person to walk by that didn’t stare at me like I was a madwoman. My hair was a complete mess, my clothes were _far_ too ‘progressive’ for the time, and I was wearing bowling shoes, for God’s sake-- yet she still gave me the time of day. Of course, among other things, she noticed the way I looked, how thin and unhealthy my frame was, and she told me she knew some people that could help me. I’d hesitated for a bit, but I eventually chose to take a leap. At that point, I was desperate, the words of my brothers and Allison deep in my mind, reminding me I still had a life to live.

It hadn’t been an easy road. I lived with her, and while some family friends tried their best to help me, I’d resisted at times, falling back into the old self I found comfortable and familiar; I screamed, I tried to run, I felt like a child, but through it all, Helen was there to help pick me back up. And after all the fight left me, I started to get better. I could acknowledge my childhood for what it had done to me, but understood it was nothing more than my past now, and what mattered was how I went through life from here. There were other factors, too, particularly making sure I wasn’t overfed right on the spot, but rather progressively introduced to a healthy amount of food and good eating habits. My relationship with food, and with my life, had come back to me.

I think that’s when I finally told myself I could slow down and rest for a while. I never stopped thinking about my brothers and sisters, lost somewhere in the world, but I became preoccupied with other things.

I couldn’t quite place one exact moment when I’d fallen for the woman I spent so much time with, but once the realization hit me, it was like everything suddenly slowed down. I felt like I had all the time in the world, but more than anything, I was afraid. By that point, I’d completely come to terms with the fact that in this time, who I was wasn’t deemed acceptable by society’s standards, and if Helen was more traditional than she had let on, I could be putting myself in serious danger.

People always talked about those inhumane ‘therapy sessions’, promised to ‘cure’ what was ‘wrong’. It seemed like everyone around her family’s dinner table knew someone that they felt belonged there, and every time they talked about it, I had to try my best to keep down the surging, roaring anger that threatened to jump out at any moment. I’d been so wrapped up in that, I never really stopped to try and steal a glance at Helen through the conversation.

I’d been left wondering for so long, but I’d been so afraid of the potential disastrous outcomes, that I just started to push things down, and pretend I’d never felt anything for her. It hadn’t been hard before, but now, something had shifted; the more I tried to ignore my thoughts, the warmth in my chest, the thumping of my heart, the worse it made everything. I felt like, if I wasn’t by her as often as I could be, my insides would just melt and slither away.

For the first time in my life, I was in _love_.

I didn’t know what to do when I came to that conclusion. I didn’t know how to act, how to sit, how to talk to Helen. How do you act like you don’t love someone? Especially when it’s all so new to you? I wasn’t so sure I could keep up the charade for much longer.

And then, one night after we’d returned from dinner at her parents’, Helen had gone completely silent. I eyed her worriedly as she shut the door behind her, gaze never leaving the floor. I wondered if her family had said something in the time between when I went out to the car and when she came out of the house.

Before I got the chance to ask, she stepped up to me suddenly, and without even hesitating, she pressed a hand against my cheek and pulled me down to her, kissing me so delicately, I worried she was going to fall apart if I moved and closer. Everything inside me exploded, fizzling into a thousand tiny bubbles that bounced about against my skin. It felt so surreal, and yet, when I opened my eyes again, everything was still the way it had been right before I closed them. I didn’t dare to ask what prompted the sudden action, mainly because I was too elated to give a damn.

“Mina, baby?”

I blinked rapidly, shifting my head to glance down at Helen. Her face wore a conflicting mix of amusement and concern, the two expressions fighting for dominance as she attempted to get my attention. Thankfully, when she noticed I’d come back out of my mind, she smiled again.

“You were pretty deep in your mind there,” she laughed, removing herself from my grip so she could serve everything up. “What were you daydreamin’ about?”

I followed her, almost in a daze, to the table she’d had set up in the kitchen, opting to take a seat beside her, rather than across, like most mornings. The moment she set the plates down, I reached for her hand and brought it to my lips, an exploding, overwhelming need to display affection suddenly taking over me.

“You,” I sighed, causing her to shake her head. “I’m serious!”

“I figured you’d be thinkin’ ‘bout your family,” she teased, offering me a smirk before raising her fork in the air and cutting away a piece of the fluffy circles. “Have you heard anything recently? Any phone calls, anything in the paper?”

Though she seemed genuinely invested at that moment, my family was the furthest thing from my mind. It wasn’t that I had completely decided to give up on them, but at this point, I just wanted to let them come to me. I had other things to worry about, other people to give my attention to.

“You know what?” I laughed. “They haven’t even crossed my mind in a while.”

This was my life, at least for now. I wanted to enjoy as much of it as possible, even if it meant I took some days just to spend them with the woman I loved.


	20. Trauma Under the Influence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I have never been drunk, or even drank alcohol before, so I have absolutely no idea what it’s like to be inebriated. However, I’ve heard it’s similar to being extremely tired, and I’ve definitely been there, so that’s my basis for Mina’s drunkenness (I may or may not be writing this whilst tired, so I can get accurate results)
> 
> Also, it is really hard to capture the charm of the end of this scene in writing… damn…

My thoughts swirled and slammed together as I continued to spin myself around in the blue suede chair I’d plopped down into, unsure of whether the alcohol or the rapid motions would make me puke first. I hadn’t planned on drinking when Klaus, Vanya, Allison, and I had left Elliott’s, but after Allison suggested we head back to the parlor where she worked to eat—since, unfortunately, most places wouldn’t even let her walk in, which was absolute bullshit—Klaus pulled out a bunch of bottles he’d stashed in a bag, and we all started to ramble about the shambles of our love lives. After being forced to relive the last 20 hours, I suddenly felt the intense need for one drink… then five… and then I lost count.

I brought myself to a halt as Allison growled angrily, reaching for the bottle of vodka on her vanity with one hand and combing through Klaus’ hair with the other. I’d never seen her so fired up in my life, but it was pretty amusing.

“The nerve of that man,” she snapped, her words ringing a little bit in my head. “I mean, one thing goes wrong, and he’s on a warpath. I mean doesn’t know who I am? No, no. No, Ray. You know _exactly_ who I am. _You_ just can’t handle it”

I laughed as, beside me, Vanya pretended to shoot at the small bottles lined up on the vanity in front of her, using her fingers as the gun. God, I loved seeing her now that she’d stopped taking those pills Dad forced on her. Her true personality was really starting to blossom.

“I’m protecting him,” Allison denied, definitely trying to convince herself of that more than she was the rest of us. Forgetting Klaus was sitting in front of her for a moment, she swung her hand out for dramatic effect, slapping him on the back of the head.

“Ow!” he exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head with the hand that wasn’t nursing a cigarette. “From what?”

“The end of the world, for one.”

That caught Vanya’s attention, causing her to perk her head up and look to her two siblings across from her in the mirror, no longer preoccupied with all the little bottles.

“Is the world really gonna end in six days?” Her words came out slightly slurred… although, admittedly, that could have been some distortion on my part. My head felt like it was underwater. Allison halted in pushing back Klaus’ hair into clips, staring at her sister’s reflection with her jaw slightly agape.

“Well, it did last time…” I suddenly lost my train of thought, waving my hand in an attempt to bring it back to me. “…and we did everything Five could think of to stop it.” Klaus brought his feet down from the vanity and stood up, beginning to make his way to the center of the room as he reached for his beloved flask.

“Hey, wouldn’t it be weird if Five grew up all hot? Wouldn’t that be weird?” he asked out of nowhere. My nausea intensified as I slowly processed his words, unable to imagine my brother as anything but the little kid presented in front of us. Not to mention, the mere notion of something like that completely grossed me out. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one, as my sisters also voiced their disgust.

“What?” Vanya scoffed, trying to dismiss the thought.

“Eww,” Allison gagged. Klaus immediately whipped around and stared at her with wide eyes, a new opportunity discovered.

“Oh! ‘Oh, eww! Eww!’ Please, Miss ‘Luther was my lover’.” I nearly choked on my own spit, laughing hysterically at Klaus’ callout. Finally, someone else in the family saw the weirdness with that situation!

“We have never even kissed,” Allison shot back, trying to quell Klaus before he got the train moving. But there was no way in hell was I about to let this go.

“Yeah, but you were making little sick moon-dog eyes at each other all through puberty and breakfasts and that,” Klaus taunted, one of his hips jutting out. I’d completely lost control of my laughter at this point, but compared to Allison and Luther, there wasn’t room to judge that.

“Aren’t we all brothers and sisters, or…?” Vanya pointed out, spinning her chair around as Allison collapsed down, gripping the neck of her bottle for dear life. Klaus snorted and leaned down, joining me in my uproarious laughter.

“Well… technically…” Allison stuttered.

“’Technically’?” I interjected. “If you have to word… if you have to use the word ‘technically’, you’re already in trouble.” I shouldn’t have opened my mouth. The moment I reprimanded Allison, Klaus jumped on his opportunity, not even missing a beat.

“Oh, please! You have no room to talk, missy.” He pointed down at me, smirking. I felt a hot shame start to creep over me as my sisters cast their eyes in my direction, realizing it could only be one of them. “Did Five not imply, back at the Superstar, that you once had a crush on our lovely Vanya?”

I pushed myself all the way up out of my chair, teetering slightly at the sudden movement as I attempted to get my bearings enough to stand up straight. Allison’s cackling across from me only made the room spin more, but I refused to go down like this.

“In my defense!” I practically screamed. “Dad never really explained to Five and I that _all_ of us were supposed to be related. He just—told us that he and I were related. I thought the rest-rest of you were just, like… other people that happened to live there or some shit. It wasn’t until we were, like, eight that he actually called Vanya my sister, and the crush immediately died there.” Feeling as though I’d talked myself out of the hole, I attempted to curtsey, but it ended in me falling against Klaus.

“Okay, can… can we focus?” Allison spoke up, drawing our attentions back to her. “I mean, clearly we’re not saving the world tonight, but maybe, maybe, we could at least try to save my marriage.” I jumped back and crashed into the chair behind me as Klaus poured more alcohol into his flask, filling it to the point that some of the golden liquid started to spill over.

“Oh, shit. Sorry, sir,” I apologized, patting the piece of furniture in the hopes he’d forgive me.

“No!” Klaus whined. “No, because that’s like… that’s like asking a nun how to hump someone’s leg.” I turned to Vanya, an eyebrow raised, unsure as to where exactly Klaus was going with this… especially considering the fact we’d just been talking about our brothers and sisters. “I mean, who in this room knows shit about relationships? This one?” I instinctively shot my hands up in surrender as he pointed at me. “Who had a girlfriend that used to be a mental patient for, what, eight hours before she banished her?”

“Okay, you weren’t there,” I defended. “First of all, she’s not crazy. She’s just lying about something. And besides, we’re not broken up yet, we’re just… fighting… from a distance.” It didn’t sound right, now that I’d said it out loud.

“You’re not helping your case,” Klaus scoffed, before immediately turning his attention to Vanya. “Or, this one? In secret love with some farm Frau?”

“Her name’s Sissy,” Vanya sighed, clearly exasperated by even the thought of her relationship with the woman.

“Which is an improvement on her previous love interest,” my eyes widened as Klaus kept going, “the serial killer?” Vanya straightened in her seat, eyes wide with panic.

“What?” Allison shook her head and mouthed the word ‘later’, dispelling the confusion for the time being.

“Meanwhile, I’m carrying a torch… for a soldier I haven’t technically met yet, and Luther’s in love with his sister.” I shrugged. That basically summed up our family.

“Okay, _again_ , we’re not biological.” That really was the hill Allison wanted to die on?

“Face it, the healthiest long-term relationship in this family was when Five was banging that mannequin.”

I gagged again, my brain on fire as I pushed that concept away. Klaus had the amazing ability to just completely forget that some of us were actually related, and wanted absolutely _nothing_ to do with the idea of them… ugh. Granted, I wouldn’t want to think about that for any of these guys, but especially not my little brother!

“Okay, your speaking plivages has been revoked.” A few moments after the sentence left my mouth, my brows furrowed. Something hadn’t been quite right about what I’d just said, but I couldn’t quite figure out what. ** _(A/N: yes, this is an actual thing I accidentally said during planning. My brain works faster than my mouth, so my speech slurs sometimes in an attempt to catch up)_**

“The only thing the Umbrella Academy knows about love…” Klaus raised his flask in the air, as though there was something to celebrate. “…is how to screw it up.”

I sighed, realizing he was right. The bottle perched on the vanity beside me began to call out to me as my mind sunk down, prompting me to reach out and take a swig of the liquid. When I’d first started drinking the rum, it stung on the way down, but now, I barely felt it. Funny how that worked.

“How do you guys deal with this?” Vanya groaned, leaning her head back against the chair.

“What?” I asked, the conversation we’d just had somehow completely flying out of my mind, leaving me confused.

“I mean, all of it. The time travel, seeing the dead, having a disappearing brother, the end of the world.” The thought of Five disappearing again caused a hell of a lot more panic in me once I had alcohol in my system. Thankfully, Klaus seemed to catch it, and he came over and draped an arm around my shoulders, instantly calming me.

“Well, I get really high,” he began to explain. “Mina literally dances until she drops.” Offended, I scoffed and pushed his arm off me. How dare he not know I hadn’t done that in two years? He hadn’t been there at all, so clearly, he should have known.

Wait…

“Allison.” Klaus hunched over and attempted to whisper, but it didn’t go very well. “Allison lies to herself.” Infuriated, the woman in question kicked her legs out, striking a stool and sending it in Klaus’ direction. “And you suppress all your emotions deep, deep down until you… you blow shit up.”

“Yeah, I’d really like to not do that anymore.”

“Well, you’ve got six days, missy.” Klaus spoke as though that was somehow supposed to help, but I couldn’t find any logic behind it.

“What the hell are we supposed to do with six days?” Allison demanded, angrily brushing out some of her curls.

I kept trying to come up with something, but the longer I thought, the more ideas left my brain. Was there some way to keep them in? Just in case, I looked down at the floor around me, making sure they hadn’t fallen down there.

“Party?” our brother suggested. Typical.

Vanya had gone oddly quiet, and when I cast a glance to her, she had a new sense of determination written on her face.

“I’m gonna tell Sissy that I love her,” she asserted, sitting up a little straighter as a result. “I don’t want any secrets.”

Honestly, that wasn’t a terrible idea. I should do that…

Not confessing to Sissy, obviously. I could find Lila and talk to her, maybe lay everything out on the table from both sides. Both of us knew we were lying to each other, so why not just completely clear the air? Sure, her coming from the 60s, her mind might be blown a little bit by the concept of the world making it all the way to 2019, but hey, it was worth it to find out what the hell was going on with her.

“You know what?” My siblings all looked to me. “I’m gonna find Lila, and I’m gonna get the truth out of her. ‘Cuz I really, _really_ like her, but, like, I can’t just keep doing this if she’s going to lie to me.” Allison waved the comb she’d been holding in my direction, quickly swapping it out for her bottle as she stood.

“Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” Never thought I’d hear her say that. “Yes, ‘cause, you know, if it’s all gonna go tits-up, the least I could do is be honest with my husband.” Despite our optimism, Klaus’s expression had fallen sullen.

“Oh… does that mean I have to face my cult?” I nodded vigorously. This was an all-or-nothing endeavor. “I just hate group break-ups. It’s why I stopped dating twins.”

With a renewed sense of confidence, Vanya threw her hands up, a smile dancing its way onto her face.

“This family’s amazing.”

Allison, Klaus, and I burst out laughing, choosing not to point out that she didn’t know the half of it. Besides, our Dad may not have been the best man, but the siblings we’d been surrounded by? They were pretty damn great.

Overwhelmed with love, I reached over and yanked Klaus up, pulling him into a hug. He chuckled and gently shuffled the two of us over to Allison, forming a line of Hargreeves.

“Come here, Vanya,” Allison called, opening the three of us up for her to join the group hug. “Come on. Get over here.”

My head shot back with laughter as Vanya pushed herself up from the chair and executed three short little bunny hops to get herself over to us, pressing her body right into the middle of the group. Something just hadn’t felt complete without her, and now that she was here… maybe things would finally start to go right.

Jesus, I missed these guys so much… 

“I love you guys,” Klaus sighed, leaning his head against mine.

“I love you guys, too.” I couldn’t help but get a little choked up, though it went away just a second later.

The song over the radio changed—when the hell did that radio get there? —, a much more upbeat tune filling up the space, and Allison gasped, her eyes lighting up.

“Oh! You guys! I _love_ this song!”

As she turned the enthusiastic tune up—I recognized it as Sam Cooke’s _Twistin’ the Night Away_ … I think—the dancer in me started to take over, and I couldn’t help but begin to tap my feet.

It wasn’t long before my siblings started to join in, shaking their hips and pumping their arms up and down, letting themselves loose after the stress and hell we’d all endured this week. Smiling wide, I reached out and took Vanya’s hands, twisting our shoulders back and forth as the two of us laughed. Our shoes slipped against the waxed floor, causing us to stumble even more than the alcohol already was, but there weren’t any casualties to speak of.

Allison suddenly grabbed onto our wrists and whipped the two of us around, pulling us into a line behind her and Klaus before she attached herself to a small cart of beauty supplies, bowing to it before dancing around it like it was a partner. At first, I wanted to laugh at my sister and how ridiculous she looked, but as Klaus and Vanya found themselves attracted to the object, I couldn’t just look away, either, and I found myself spinning around right by their sides.

Who gave a shit if I looked like a fool? My siblings had seen that side of me for 18 years… and even beyond that.

We darted back and forth across the salon, plopping down into chairs and lowering dryers over our heads, just doing whatever felt good. At one point, as I passed by my own reflection, I became distracted by the movement, and I spun the chair in front of the mirror around once before slinging myself into it and blowing a kiss toward myself. The alcohol probably fueled that moment of self-confidence, but screw it. I had to have some at one point or another, right?

Just before the music ended, Klaus suddenly yanked me off my feet and spun me around in circles, causing me to screech as he caught me off-guard. Still, when he put me down on my feet again, I finished off my dance with my brother.

The four of us laughed as the song faded out, plopping back down into our respective chairs. We remained in a tired silence, until Klaus’ eyes moved to me, now filled with curiosity. I stiffened slightly upon noticing it, uneasy about the directions he could potentially take that look in.

“Hey, Mina, what happened to that woman you were with before Lila?” he asked suddenly.

The world felt like it had come to a stop around me, my head now pounding with intense drums in time with the beat of my heart. My stomach began to churn, my breath shortening by the second. I’d mentioned Helen, ever so briefly, at the start of our outing, but I tried so hard just to not think about it.

“Shit, Mina, I didn’t mean to—“

These thoughts couldn’t just stay pent up forever. It wasn’t like there was anyone I could see to talk things out in this day and age, for several reasons, and Klaus had always been the first person I turned to (even when Five was around, there was just things Klaus understood better) in times like these. If there was anyone who I could finally let this loose on, it was him. Not to mention, Allison and Vanya would understand. We were struggling in different ways, but at the end of the day, it all came back to the fact we weren’t welcome in this time, and the same went for Klaus.

With a deep breath, I pushed myself up and stuck a hand out, cutting him off.

“It’s fine, Klaus. I have to talk about this eventually, otherwise it’s just going to become something that eats away at me.”

My eyes glossed over my brother and sisters one last time, their patient expressions reminding me I was safe here among them.

“Her family found out about us, eventually. We figured it was going to happen eventually, but she’d hoped that when they did, they’d remember she was their daughter, and they’d still love her just like they had before they knew. But…” I fought down the bitterness climbing up my throat. “They were furious. Her parents screamed and threatened us, and they tried to say that Helen was ‘brainwashed’ by me, that I’d ‘infected’ her… and they forced her to go and see one of those people—the people that do those stupid ‘Conversion Therapies’. She didn’t have a choice. Her family still bothered me for a long while after they sent Helen away, but eventually, it all died down, and the house got quiet.” I swallowed, watching as my siblings’ expressions quickly turned to ones of horror. “Last I heard, she got married to a man and has a family with him. So… there’s that.”

My eyes fell shut, trying to get my brain to stop screaming. I forced myself not to go back to that place, trying to prevent a potential disaster, reveling in the silence instead. No one dared to move, or even breathe, for several moments after my words finished spilling out, but eventually, I heard the squeaking of chairs moving, the rustling of fabric, and Allison’s heels clicking against the floor.

I began to sob as my siblings wrapped their arms around me, trying their best to offer reassurance for something they couldn’t truly understand. To me, that didn’t matter. I wasn’t so sure I’d ever be able to understand it myself. All four of us were punished just for being us, which laid at the root of all of this.

How the hell did we end up in a situation like this?

I expected the pain to start fading away, for the hurt to start dulling as I gripped tight onto my brother and sisters, but instead, everything just started to swell, growing more and more intense as the moments went on. What the hell?

The sun had completely set by the time we all left. I could feel myself mostly sobering up, but I hadn’t brought my car down this way, so I’d need to take a cab regardless. As I slid into the back seat, I almost instinctively asked to be taken to Elliott’s shop, but on second thought… maybe a bath and a change of clothes would help me feel better. I could even sleep in my own bed tonight, instead of that paper-thin mattress Elliott had.

Hopefully, my brothers wouldn’t worry too much—if they were even back.

I’d started to calm down on the drive home, realizing that a weight had been lifted off of me that I had carried around for so long. Nothing would ever make it completely go away, but just getting what happened out there in the open… it helped a lot.

Unfortunately, all that progress came undone as I unlocked my front door. My foot kicked a little envelope that had been slipped in through the mail slot while I’d been gone. Strangely, there was no name written on it, nor was there a return address or stamp. Though I was wary of the object’s presence in my home, my curiosity got the better of me, and I opened up the envelope. Inside rested a crisp, thick piece of cardstock. The image of an umbrella had been printed on the top, along with the words ‘From the desk of Sir Reginald Hargreeves’.

Shit.

How in the hell did he even find my address? Or know that I existed? He and I had never even run into each other.

The text neatly printed onto the creamy paper certainly didn’t help to calm me down any.

_To my pursuers,_

_I, Reginald Hargreeves, request the pleasure of your company for a light supper on the 20 th of November, 1963, half past seven o’clock. 1624 Magnolia Street_

Shit… shit… shit…

I was going to have to face Dad—the very person that put me in the position I’d worked so hard to recover from the man I’d told, on repeated occasions after the disappearances and deaths of two of my brothers, that I hated him, the very last person on this earth that I needed to see after all of this.

The gentle sands of my thoughts got swept up in the winds again, blowing them in spirals. My breath cut in and out quickly as my mind went cloudy, all my sense completely leaving me. I had to deal with this somehow, I didn’t care how…

That’s when my eyes fell on a set of keys hanging up on the rack, taunting me with the fact they wouldn’t be allowed to remain there for much longer, regardless of whether or not we could stop the world from ending. It was an easy out, a cheap out, a stupid out; it erased everything I’d worked so hard to change.

I didn’t care. I needed this.

Without even attempting to stop myself, I snatched the keys and sprinted into my car, taking off along the route I’d familiarized myself with. The building was completely dark, abandoned for the night, and there were no cars parked in the lot, but what were they going to do? Arrest me? The police wouldn’t even be able to find me.

Maybe some of that alcohol was still left in my system…

Sneaking in through the back, I unlocked the door and stepped inside, flicking on the lights of one of the studios. It was like being welcomed back by an old friend, one I missed so dearly.

I didn’t bother to find a record and put it on, I just went by the music in my head. I started off light, just bending myself about and kicking my legs, but as the turns and jumps came in, I began to push myself harder and harder. My mind started to fade to black as my legs and arms burned and begged me to stop, but I wouldn’t listen.

I’d forgotten how _thrilling_ this could be. It felt like I could go forever. 

Until my legs suddenly gave out beneath me, and I collapsed onto the hard ground, my eyes forcing themselves shut just seconds later.


	21. Motherly Instincts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only 1 chapter this week :( BUT to make up for that, you guys will be getting-- drumroll please........
> 
> 4 whole chapters next week! Woo-hoo!
> 
> It was either this or give y’all five chapters this week, and in all honesty, I didn’t have time to edit 5 chapters
> 
> ALSO fun little bit of information, for those of you who missed my ramblings on Quotev: since we don’t really know Five’s lineage (we can speculate, but there’s nothing clear), so I have decided Mina and Five are going to be Indian and British/German (meaning the mother that gave birth to them was already biracial) because that’s my lineage, and my skin color is basically the same as Five’s, so therefore, that’s my declaration. The end

“Mina!” a voice shrieked.

Overwhelmed with panic, I shot up, flailing my arms just enough to fire a bolt of lightning out to my side. One of the blurry figures hovering over me jumped back and stared at the smoldering spot on the carpet, before they directed their attention back to me.

Wait… carpet? Last I checked, I was on a hard floor. 

Slowly, my eyes began to adjust, and I could just make out a big, bulky man with horribly hunched shoulders shaking as he attempted to hold back laughter from the much skinnier man to his left. Soft cushions bent beneath me as I pushed myself up onto my elbows, trying my best to fight through the banging and pounding against my skull as my body attempted to recover from both the excess intake of alcohol and the overexertion I put myself through.

“What do you want, Diego?” I snapped, my speech still slurred because I’d just woken up.

“Not so fun when you’re on the receiving end, huh?” he smirked, crossing his arms as he raised an eyebrow at me.

“Diego, come on,” I heard Vanya’s voice chastise. “Leave her alone.”

I thought Vanya was going back to the farm to talk to Sissy. What was she doing back at Elliott’s?

“Right. Sorry.”

Once my vision had fully cleared, Luther passed me a steaming, bitter mug of tea and a couple of painkillers. It would take them a while to kick in, but at least this headache would slightly subside eventually. That pain right there was a beautiful reminder for why I rarely had more than one or two drinks a night.

I had absolutely no clue how Klaus did it.

Klaus!

I shot up to my feet suddenly, spilling some of the still-boiling hot beverage onto my sweater. I flinched briefly, registering the searing pain, before my brain turned right back to my missing brother, and subsequently, my sister that he seemed to be clinging to as of late. My eyes darted around quickly, searching for either of them, but they weren’t anywhere on this floor.

“What happened to Klaus and Allison?” I asked, my voice strangled and gargled as I leaned closer to Vanya, indicating I was asking her. She shrugged, her shoulders appearing almost disjointed from the rest of her body as she did.

“They must have gone back home,” she answered, not really sounding too sure of the answer. “I went, too, for a little bit, but…” Vanya trailed off, an almost pained expression crossing her face as she thought about whatever came after her return to the farm. Sensing the tension, Diego and Luther stepped a little closer to me, allowing her to collect herself.

“You feeling okay?” I tried my best to contain my shock when I realized that question came from Luther’s mouth.

“Uh… I guess,” I murmured. I wasn’t quite sure why I felt the need to keep my voice down. “My head still hurts pretty bad, but I don’t think I did any damage to any other parts of me.” As I said that, I glanced down at my arms and legs. There were a couple prominent, dark purple bruises—the result of a nasty fall—but not much else.

“Look, I don’t want to push you on anything, but…” Diego’s eyes fell for a moment, unable to meet mine, but once they snapped back up, I saw a rare glint of genuine concern. “What happened? I mean, you said you haven’t relapsed in a long time, but you were passed out at a dance studio.” I could feel a blush hot with shame slowly crawling its way up my neck.

“Yeah, that was the studio I got… fired from.” My brothers’ eyes widened slightly. “I don’t want to talk about it. Anyway, it was kind of a rough night; Klaus, Allison, Vanya, and I got a little too personal once the alcohol kicked in, and then I came home and saw some invitation from Dad, and… all of a sudden, it was like I wasn’t in control of my body anymore. But I promise I’m pretty close to okay now.”

There was silence for a moment, blanketing my brothers and I and strangely providing a sort of comfort, before Diego stepped forward and pulled me into a short, slightly stiff hug. Still, despite the nature of the affectionate gesture, I gladly returned it, leaning my head against my brother’s shoulder for a moment before he pulled away.

“You got one of the invitations, too?” I nodded, slightly dumbfounded. For whatever reason, it hadn’t crossed my mind that the rest of my family might have received the little slips that wrought dread, yet here was the confirmation.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “It was slipped through my mail slot at some point.”

Luther removed his own pristine piece of stationary as I made my way back over to Vanya, taking a seat beside her. She smiled at me briefly, before our attentions turned back to our brothers. Diego pulled on that flashy, orange over shirt he _refused_ to trade out—or clean, for that matter—as Luther looked in his direction.

“Diego, this is a setup,” I warned, spotting that slightly crazed look starting to form in his eyes the more he thought about Dad.

“Maybe. But we should go anyway,” he argued.

“Says the guy who’s already been stabbed once this week,” I shot back, trying to bring him back down.

“Oh, don’t worry, me and him are gonna have words.” I glared at my brother, starting to shift forward on my seat in case I needed to diffuse him at all. In the process, my eyes drifted to the plate of food Luther had left sitting on the table in front of me, and when he wasn’t looking, I shot forward and grabbed one of the five pieces of toast, biting into it unapologetically.

“Would you tell him he’s nuts?” I sighed, turning to Vanya with crumbs littering my face. Much to my dismay, she smiled a little, briefly glancing past me to look to Diego.

“I think we should go,” she admitted.

“See?” Diego smirked, clearly overjoyed she wasn’t taking my side this time.

“Vanya,” Luther scoffed, “of all people, you should hate Dad the most.” He made an excellent point. I just never expected him to take my side on something. What the hell was happening?

“Come on, can he really be that bad?” Diego, Luther, and I exchanged a glance. There was almost a childish innocence to Vanya’s optimism when it came to Dad, but unfortunately, there was no benefit of the doubt with that man.

“Okay, well, let’s see.” Luther was starting to fall back into his ‘I-know-better-than-you-do’ demeanor, complete with that stupid, smug smirk, causing my annoyance to rise. “He isolated you from the rest of the family.”

“Kept you hopped up on pills,” Diego added. I shook my head, but it couldn’t hurt to join in. After all, the goal was to dissuade everyone from going to this supper, which could lead to a potential disaster.

“And he brainwashed you into thinking you had no powers,” I finished. Vanya stared at the three of us in horror, almost appearing unable to completely process everything we’d just laid on her. Her eyes fell away, opting to focus in on the gaudy rug beneath our feet.

“Jesus, this guy…” she whispered, still attempting to get everything through her head.

“Yeah,” Luther nodded, completely unsympathetic.

“I mean, _come on_ , I have to meet him.”

That hadn’t gone quite as planned. I wanted to fight her on it, just for a moment, when I dawned on me just how cathartic meeting up with Dad could be. He had no clue who we were, or the ways we had rebelled in our teenage years. We could convince him to do anything, to go lighter on us…

Sure, that probably wasn’t good for the timeline, and could cause some future repercussions, but the possibility was too tantalizing not to entertain.

“What the hell?” I laughed. “This could be interesting.” Luther, on the other hand, wasn’t giving in yet. He cast his glare in my direction, pointing an accusatory finger straight at me.

“ _You_ already know how this is gonna go. Dad’s gonna play all his little mind games on us, get into our heads, and he’s gonna turn us all against each other. You watch.” I rolled my eyes as Luther resumed stabbing his breakfast.

“Luther, we’re not 12 anymore,” Diego groaned. “All right? We’re grown-ass men.” I cleared my throat, drawing his attention to Vanya and I. “And women.” Pouting, Luther sighed through his nostrils and shifted away from his brother slightly. “Hey. Hey. We can handle him. Wanna know what’s different this time?”

“What’s that?” Luther almost sounded like he was mocking Diego, despite the fact the latter was actually trying to help him.

“You got me.” He looked to Vanya and I, focusing back on the entire group. “We go in there as a united front. No more ‘Number One’, ‘Number Two’ bullshit. From now on, it’s… Team Zero.”

I tried my best to hold back my laughter. The sentiment was definitely appreciated, and the message came across clear, but calling us ‘Team Zero’ didn’t exactly make it sound like we’d be the people you should call when there was a crisis.

“’Team Zero?’” Despite my efforts, a smile crept onto my face, and my words came out with a little bit of a snicker. “I’m sorry. I promise I 100% support this.” With that reassurance, Diego nodded, confident in his new creation.

“Team Zero. All the way.” He held his fists out toward Luther and I, and once we both bumped our own against his, he leaned over me and offered the same gesture to Vanya, taking care to make sure she wasn’t left out. My heart swelled as I watched the display. I expected my siblings to stare at him until he awkwardly retracted his fists, but this was just as welcome.

As my eyes scanned over my brothers and sister again, I slowly realized there was someone that hadn’t been accounted for, which wasn’t a good sign. Slowly, I got up from my seat, looking around me, as though he would be hidden behind the couch or something. Luther and Diego were staring at me with concern when I whipped back around, my eyes growing wider by the second.

“Did Five ever come back yesterday?” They both glanced at each other, almost daring the other to answer the question. The tense silence hung in the air for a few moments, before Luther had the bravery to speak up.

“He wasn’t here when we got back, so I guess not.”

My heart began to pound in my chest, a familiar panic rising up quickly. The amount of times that boy got lost just wasn’t normal, and of course, every time it happened, I could feel years of my life draining away with the way my heart rate spiked. Without thinking, I slipped my shoes on, getting ready to grab the car and head out to find him.

“Mina, what are you doing?” Diego had already stood up, and had his arm out in preparation to grab mine if I tried to run.

“Going to get my brother. He’s probably out there, The Commission might be hunting him down, the Swedes could have gotten to him, and I can’t just let that go.” The two of them looked to each other again, before Luther got to his feet and grabbed onto my shoulders. That did absolutely nothing to calm me down, given what he did to Vanya when she started losing it.

“Let’s go on a walk,” he suggested. Terrified and annoyed, I pulled away from his grasp, glaring up at him.

“No way. You’re not locking me up that easily.” Luther’s hardened expression let up slightly, and weirdly, as he smiled, I felt my defenses falling away, and although I still didn’t completely trust him, I at least would give this a chance. “Fine.”

I followed Luther down the stairs and into the back alley—the place where all of us had touched down in Dallas. As we turned and headed out onto the sidewalk, where there were plenty of people as witnesses, I started to relax. Luther wouldn’t pull something in front of this many people.

“What’s up?” I finally asked, looking up toward my brother. He let out a long sigh, mulling the words over in his head, before he began to just spew.

“Five’s probably just fine,” he shrugged, trying to keep himself from slipping into his scolding nature. “He’s a 58-year-old, perfectly trained assassin that spent most of his life killing. He’s capable of defending himself.”

Though Luther had a point, I couldn’t bring myself to just give in; I couldn’t make myself see things the way he did.

“Luther, he’s my little brother,” I argued. “I feel responsible for him.” I flinched slightly as his expression hardened even further—if that was possible.

“Look, it’s pretty obvious you’re so overprotective because, despite what you say, you still feel responsible for what happened when we were 13.” My eyes fell to my shoes, a bitter stinging working its way up my throat. “You’re his sister, Mina, not his mom. You can loosen the leash a little; he’ll be fine.”

Though I couldn’t appreciate Luther’s sentiments in the moment, they began to stir around in my brain, starting to make their mark on my typical thoughts. The longer we walked, the more my tension melted away, and slowly, but surely, I mostly stopped worrying.

He’d be fine, and most likely, he’d come back… right?


	22. Anticipation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologizing in advance for all the breaks in this scene. Without them, this chapter would have been almost 20 pages, which isn’t what we’re going for in this series

The silver-studded building loomed far above my head, threatening to push me over if I craned my neck back enough to look at the very top. Warm yellow lights spilled out from some of the spotless, shimmering windows—the eyes of the monster, staring down its prey before it devoured it whole. My gaze fluttered down to the invitation in my hand, the center crease ready to tear itself apart from all the times I opened, closed, and pressed my fingers against the paper. The address neatly printed near the bottom perfectly matched the silver letters against the post in front of me shooting their glare right into my eyes. Deep blue words lined the awning neatly, expecting all those who passed by to bask in the grandeur of their presence.

I turned over my shoulder and glanced toward Luther, Diego, and Vanya, pleading for them to hurry up and come with me. They were having a quiet conversation near the car, the contents of which didn’t interest me. Now, I just wanted someone by my side before I opened the completely transparent glass doors, devoid of any scratch or even a single fingerprint, and sealed our fates. I could see into the blindingly white lobby, taking note of the strange sort of paintings lining the walls that led to a group of elevators. Just looking at it caused prickly sensations to poke across my skin, like a brand-new wool sweater, not yet softened by multitudes of washes.

Eventually, Vanya turned her attention back to me, noticing that her sister was begging for help, and she nudged our brothers, who promptly turned around and made their way over to join me. I felt someone squeeze my hand once—I think it may have been Vanya, given how small the other hand was—and with that, the four of us headed into the building. Immediately, we were hit with a blast of arctic air, causing a foreboding shudder to run through all of us at the same time.

Right as I got up the stairs, one of the elevators started to close. Though the socially anxious part of me screamed to just wait, I wasn’t willing to waste time. We were meeting with Dad, of all people, and I didn’t want to take the risk of running even a second late. No doubt he’d chew us out if that was the case, even if he didn’t know who we were.

“Hold that elevator!” I called, picking up my pace and managing to squeeze my hand through the narrowing gap in the elevator door. Right before it slammed shut on me, I pushed it open and stepped inside. I let out a sigh of relief when I realized the other person inside was a certain kid in that same old uniform. “Oh, thank God, you’re alive.”

I slid off to the side, standing tall behind Five as I waited for the others to arrive. Diego caught up next, followed by Allison, then Klaus, Vanya, and finally, Luther, who stood dead in the center of all of us. Though it was quite a tight fit, and I was pressed directly against the wall thanks to the mass that was Luther’s upper body, I felt a strange sense of comfort wrap around me.

“Good,” Five muttered. “We’re all here.”

The doors completely shut us in, and I felt the sudden shake of the elevator moving from where it had been resting. Instinctually, my hands moved to gently rest on my brother’s shoulders, offering perhaps the tiniest bit of assurance that this couldn’t be all bad.

Following our little talk, Luther and I had gone back to my place, where I let him make some food while I got clean and changed. I even let him use my shower, since it was a thousand times better than Elliott’s. However, none of it felt like it was enough. I still didn’t feel presentable enough to stand up to Dad’s scrutiny.

No one said a word to each other the entire ride up, though occasionally, some eyes would wander to another sibling. It wasn’t until we were about halfway there, when a pungent, foul odor suddenly began to fill the tiny confines of the elevator car that anyone made any sort of noise. For a moment, my brows furrowed, unsure of whether or not my mind was playing tricks on me, but not a second later, the stench became overwhelming, forcing me to shove my nose deep into one of my elbows. My other siblings began to gag and hide their faces as well, groaning in disgust.

“Luther,” Klaus whined. With the culprit identified, I glared at him.

“Sorry,” he murmured, clearly embarrassed. “I’m nervous.”

It felt like six eternities up to the right floor, but right as it felt like I was about to pass out from holding my breath, the car stopped and the doors slid open. Immediately, all of our siblings came spilling out, desperate to flee the situation and just get this shit over with.

“Nasty,” I heard Five gag. “I’m choking!”

“None of that,” Klaus groaned.

The doors to the lounge remained sealed shut, despite the fact the seven of us were standing right there. No one had the bravery to be the one to step inside and confirm all of this was real. We remained frozen, like figures in a tableau, until Five finally pushed through all of us and swung the barriers open, starting the timer down from when we’d be leaving right back through them.

I gave it five minutes from Dad’s arrival.

Thankfully, we had a bit of time to talk before the old man arrived. We definitely needed to get ourselves in order, considering some people’s priorities might completely screw us over if they brought them up.

“All right, when Dad gets here, I’ll do the talking, okay?” Five’s words were less of a question, and more of a statement-of-fact.

“Got a few questions for him myself,” Diego grumbled.

I made my way over to a chair and rested my hands against it, trying my best to keep the fidgeting and little foot movements to a minimum. Still, I found myself dancing a bit beneath myself, which caused a bit of a charge to start slowly building up.

“Hey, we don’t want to scare him off,” Five warned as he made his way toward the chair next to mine. “He might be able to help us stop doomsday and get us home.”

“No, we need to figure out why he’s planning to kill the president.” I sighed, shaking my head as I eyed Diego.

“Diego, that’s so not important right now,” I snapped, growing frustrated. He was _not_ about to be the reason we blew this.

“This is a matter of life and death, you imbecile,” Five growled.

“Okay, yeah, maybe we should take turns talking. Yeah?” Vanya interjected. It did nothing to diffuse the situation, but at least it momentarily distracted my warring brothers. Vanya’s eyes drifted over to the table beside her, and upon spotting a decorative conch shell, she reached over and held it up for the rest of us to see. “Here, whoever has this conch shell gets to talk.”

I snickered as I stared at the object, both horrified and amused. I suppose all those books Dad made us read as kids were still buried in Vanya’s mind somewhere. It could be a good instrument to get our siblings to finally fall in line. On the other hand, if the conch was really going to be our instrument for who gets to speak, the anarchy its origins promised was anything but reassuring.

“Vanya, we don’t have time for a debate, okay?” I elbowed Five, diffusing his anger slightly.

“Maybe I should lead,” Allison asserted as she snatched the shell from her sister’s hand. “We all know I’m a better public speaker than the rest of you.” I rolled my eyes. Allison’s true self was starting to peek back through—the side of her I’d loathed as children.

“Okay, Daddy’s girl,” Diego taunted. This was already falling into chaos. Then again, what did I expect would happen?

“Oh, jealous, Number Two.” Allison used that like it was a device to mock Diego, but two came _before_ three, last I checked. Was she drunk again?

“Hey, no more numbers.” Diego’s childish demeanor fell away the moment the subject switched. “No more bullshit. We’re Team Zero. We’re all Team Zero.” I couldn’t help but snicker at the name again.

“Uh, Diego?” He turned to look back at me, eyebrows raised with curiosity. “You don’t have the conch,” I observed, pointing to the object in Allison’s hands with a smirk.

Diego nodded, almost appearing like he was going to shoot some joke back at me, when all of a sudden, he ripped the object from Allison’s hand and chucked it right in my direction. Thinking fast, I managed to duck down right before it would have made impact with my chest. Instead, the fragile object struck the wall behind me and shattered into a million pieces. A few members of the wait staff jumped, but barely paid the sharp shards strewn about on the ground any mind.

“Classic,” Allison sighed.

Suddenly, the doors flew open, and we all stiffened. It was time…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t actually know if the conch shell thing is a Lord of the Flies reference, but the English Major in me really wants it to be


	23. A Hargreeves Family Dysfunction

A cold wind blew straight in our direction as the doors opened again, this time much smoother than when Five had casually thrown them apart. My eyes widened as I followed the man marching closer to us, a notebook and some file folders tucked neatly under his arm. His gaze remained steely as we all watched him effortlessly move toward what could be considered the head of the table, as if there was no question he would take that place. I felt small and scrutinized under his eyes as he momentarily looked over me, before passing his judgement on to Five, as though we were nothing significant. As expected, Dad didn’t bother with pleasantries as he took a seat in his chair, back perfectly straight.

“Not only have you burglarized my lab…” Dad cast his disappointed glare toward Five, Diego, and I. I felt the instinct to shrink down, but I refused to give him that satisfaction. Beneath the table, I felt Five’s hand attach itself to my arm, just like when we were kids. “…set my chimp loose, conned your way into the Mexican consulate, repeatedly stalked and attacked me, but you have, on numerous occasions, called me…”

Dad trailed off as Klaus finally made his way to the table from the bar, a drink firmly gripped in his hand. He seemed completely blasé about the whole affair, plopping down in his chair and completely disregarding the man directly next to him for several seconds.

“Hey, Pop,” he finally greeted, completely casual. “How’s it hangin’?”

“…’Dad’.” I almost wanted to laugh at the irony, but I knew it wouldn’t be deemed appropriate. “My reconnaissance tells me you’re not CIA, not KGB, _certainly_ not MI5, so… who are you?” I raised my eyebrows at Dad as he spoke. People had been watching us?

Well, actually, that seemed only fair. We were literally doing the same thing to him.

The seven of us all glanced around at each other, unsure of how to answer the question. He really didn’t know who we were, meaning somehow, we’d have to give him a rundown of everything. But was that even safe? What would happen if we divulged the future to someone as important as Dad? What would that mean for us?

“We’re your children,” Five answered bluntly.

There went that.

Dad’s head snapped back around to Five suddenly, his icy eyes piercing right through the boy. However, true to form, Five didn’t waver, though his voice became noticeably more garbled.

“We’re from the future,” he continued. “In 1989, you adopted us all and trained us to fight against the end of the world. Called us the Umbrella Academy.” Klaus raised his martini glass in the air, as though the basic facts were worth a toast.

“Why on Earth would I adopt seven—“

“Eight,” I corrected Dad. I tried my best to remain strong as he looked to me, but I could already feel the scrutiny searing holes through my sweater. “One of us isn’t here… One of us is dead.”

The memory of the day Ben died came creeping back into my head, forcing me into silence. My eyes fell to my hands, my left leg’s rapid movements causing them to bounce.

“Yeah, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.” Klaus turned around to face an empty table behind us, moving his free hand like a puppet’s mouth. “Enough of that now.”

For a brief second, I smiled, realizing Klaus had lied (as suspected). I directed my attention to the same spot Klaus had been focused on a moment ago and offered the tiniest wave

“Regardless,” Dad interjected, bringing back the freezing sensation deep in my bones, “what would possess me to adopt eight ill-mannered malcontents?”

My jaw dropped slightly as I stared down the man, suddenly unable to form even a basic word in my mind. My eyes drifted downward again, this time staring at my stomach, my arms, and my thighs. Once again, I wasn’t good enough for Dad. He’d just pinpointed our manners, or rather his perceived lack thereof, but Dad would often disguise his true criticisms, forcing us to realize what was wrong with ourselves. I certainly didn’t look like the ideal dancer anymore, nor did I look equipped to go out and save the world if it demanded it. I’d let myself fall off from my training. I thought I should maybe get back on that.

As the silence lingered between our family, I felt hands squeeze my arms on either side of me. Allison and Five’s reassurance cut through the thoughts that began to swirl around and settled them back down in the corner, where they belonged.

Dad always brought all the dark thoughts back…

I offered a tiny smile to the both of them, assuring them I’d come back out of my mind, and tried my best to use the fact everyone at the table was staring at me—my siblings with concern, knowing what was going on, Dad with what seemed to be slight annoyance—to my advantage.

“We have special abilities,” I finally answered.

“Special?” I flinched slightly at the way Dad barked the word. “In what sense?”

“In the superpower sense,” Luther clarified, realizing I’d been unsettled beyond the point of answering.

“Call me old-fashioned, but I’m a stickler for a pesky little thing called evidence. Show me.”

I shook my head, sighing. There was no way we’d be able to show off our powers without destroying the place, not to mention some of our siblings would turn it into a competition of whose powers were stronger. Besides, we didn’t just have to bend to Dad’s will. Based on his tone, it was pretty clear he was trying to provoke us, and I wasn’t about to fall into that trap.

“Everybody wants to see powers all of a sudden,” Allison scoffed as she mixed the straw around in her drink. My eyebrows raised slightly, realizing things must have gone a bit south with Raymond.

At least she had the balls to actually talk to him. I had to give her props for that.

“We’re not circus animals, okay?” I shifted my shocked gaze to Luther, who was currently leering at Dad. Was he actually… fighting back against him? What was happening today? “We’re not gonna bounce balls on our noses and clap our hands in amusement.”

Right on cue, Diego’s wrist suddenly flicked out, and one of his knives went twirling right past our heads, before he changed the trajectory midway through its flight path and sent it straight into a post. Dad’s eyebrows practically lowered over his eyes, his glare turning even darker, and he hunched over his notebook, scrawling quickly.

“What are you writing?” the knife-thrower inquired as we all leaned closer, attempting to get a peek.

“You are zero-for-two, young man.”

I started to snicker, when Diego suddenly shot up from his seat, nearly knocking it over. He looked as though he was going to march right for Dad, which could spell disaster. I started to slide my chair back and stand, thinking fast, when Five blinked right in front of his brother and pushed back on him, trying to get him to calm down. However, Diego being Diego, he still grumbled and wouldn’t settle down, so I stuck my hand out in his direction, jolting him back into place with a slight shock. I did my best to ignore his glare, knowing he wouldn’t have settled down if I hadn’t done that.

“Now that is interesting…” Dad muttered, before his eyes turned specifically to me. “How does that electricity work?” he inquired, his eyes no less steely. I swallowed, hard, afraid of disappointing him.

“I’m not really sure,” I admitted. “I know I charge it up through movement—dance and spinning, in particular—but I’m not sure how it reaches my desired target without hitting anyone else in the process. It’s almost like I can… teleport it, I guess.”

Dad leaned over and began to write again, and Five took that as his chance to go through everyone else really quickly. We had more urgent things to cover, after all.

“All right, quick run-down. Luther: super strength; Klaus can commune with the dead; Allison can rumor anyone to do anything.”

“Yeah, except she never uses it,” Diego laughed, shooting a taunting glare toward his sister. She immediately shot her head up from her drink, the mischievous sparkle in her eyes returning for the first time since we were kids.

“I heard a rumor you punched yourself in the face.”

Allison looked right at Diego as he said that, causing his irises and pupils to completely disappear, leaving only the whites of his eyes there. His fist raised in the air, and in one, fluid motion, collided it with his nose. Almost immediately, Diego snapped out of the controlled state and bent over, covering the afflicted spot with his hands.

Although it was childish, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Dammit!” Diego cried out in pain. Maybe I felt a little bad…

Dad stared at the rest of us for another moment, before he leaned against his elbows and directed his gaze straight toward Vanya, who had been eerily silent this entire time. She almost looked like she had gone into shutdown mode, her eyes slightly glazed over.

“And you?” he questioned, waiting for her to do something. At the mere insinuation of Vanya using her powers, particularly indoors, the rest of our siblings stiffened, a nervous energy flowing through us.

“Uh, maybe we don’t take Vanya for a test run,” Luther suggested, reaching over and briefly squeezing his sister’s arm.

“Oh, yeah, that’s probably not a good idea,” Klaus agreed, tipping his glass toward her.

“It’s fine,” Vanya shrugged, already sitting up straighter. Something almost annoyed seemed to cross her face for a moment, worrying me. It appeared her emotions had a big influence on her powers, and if there was anything negative running through her at the moment, that could spell disaster for the rest of us. “I can handle it.”

As she reached for a fork, the rest of our family began to protest.

“Vanya, this doesn’t seem like a good idea,” I spoke up among the chaos of everyone else’s voices. “This is an enclosed space, and your powers tend to be—“

Before I could finish my sentence, a smirk crossed Vanya’s face and she tapped the fork in her hands against the glass in front of her. A gentle note floated through the air, and just like that, the table began to shake violently, and the fruit carefully arranged in a pattern as our centerpiece exploded. I flinched and covered my eyes, shielding them from getting hit by any projectile pieces, but a few sticky, wet chunks latched themselves onto my sweater.

Once it was safe, I moved my arm down and sighed, gently picking off the bigger pieces. I’d need to stick this in the wash immediately, otherwise it would stain.

“Oops.” Vanya had the tiniest smile on her face as she set her hands back down. There was some part of me that was impressed with how unapologetic she was about this.

“That was impressive,” Luther muttered as Dad finished cleaning off his monocle and set it back on his left eye, just like always.

My heart stopped in my chest for a second as Diego stood, his eyes stark-raving mad and his fingers tightly clamped against each other.

“Look, we know you’re involved in a plot to assassinate the president.”

Slowly, my head lowered down into my hands, propping up against the table with my elbows. Diego was going to blow this for all of us.

“You were recently hospitalized. Isn’t that correct?” I felt that uncomfortable shudder run down my spine. Whoever Dad had sent to follow and research us had been really thorough… “You still appear to be suffering from delusions of grandeur and acute paranoia.”

Despite Dad’s insults, Diego didn’t bend, and instead, reached into his pocket and removed the blurry photograph of Dad on the grassy knoll.

“Am I? He slapped it down against the table, staring the old man down with such intense determination and pride. “Explain this.”

Dad picked up the small square and looked over the image, his brows furrowing in confusion this time. It was as though he didn’t recognize himself in the picture. Then again, all of this was in his future, so maybe he was just wary because it hadn’t happened yet. _If_ it even was him. I still maintained my doubts.

“That’s you,” Diego pointed out, though it wasn’t really necessary. “That’s two days from now on the grassy knoll at the exact spot the president’s gonna get shot.” Something on Dad’s face shifted, and he almost looked like he was smirking at Diego.

This was not going to end well…

“Well… I suppose you’ve solved it.” He slid the photo back to Diego, who stood a little straighter. “You’ve single-handedly unearthed my nefarious plot.” He paused for a second, almost appearing as though he was finished. But I knew Dad better than that. “Is that what you want to hear?”

There it was.

“You fancy yourself a do-gooder? The last good man who will save us from our descent into corruption and conspiracy?” The bitter words leaving Dad’s mouth pushed Diego down further and further, causing his arms to begin to shake. Although he’d brought this on himself, my heart still hurt for him. “This is a fantastic delusion. The sad reality is that you’re a desperate man, tragically unaware of his own insignificance, desperately clinging to his own ineffectual reasoning. More succinctly, a man in over his head.”

Diego now trembled in his seat, his eyes beginning to water with tears he was too prideful to let fall. His entire being shook with rage and hurt as he stared our father down, his lips moving but no words coming out.

“Y-Y-You’re wr-wrong,” he stuttered out slowly. I inhaled sharply, unable to watch for another second. Mom had worked so hard to help Diego fix his stutter when we were kids, and now, Dad had undone all of that in just a matter of seconds.

Most of our siblings went silent, either out of shock or out of respect for Diego. No matter how irritating and unendingly frustrating he could be, he didn’t deserve this sort of treatment. None of us did.

Five, on the other hand, had always been a bit dense when it came to social cues, and as a result, he moved on from the topic currently on the table as quickly as possible.

Now thinking back on it, maybe he did that to help save Diego from completely drowning.

“Look, forget about the president,” he snapped. “We have a catastrophic war coming in five days. We need to figure out how to stop it.”

“War?” Dad laughed. “Men will always be at war with each other.”

“No, this isn’t just some war,” Five insisted. “I’m talking about a doomsday. The end of the world.”

Dad’s glare only sharpened as he looked around at all of our faces, his shoulders rolling back to make him appear even taller… if that was possible.

“Well… you’re the special ones, aren’t you?” I watched Five’s hope slowly slither away, leaving him drained and defeated as he leaned back in his chair. My rage began to bubble up, just shy of the uncontrollable point I was so familiar with. “Why don’t you band together and do something about it?”

Warning signals were flashing inside my mind, but I ignored them. I’d finally reached the point of no return, and I wasn’t about to put it away now.

Everything built up inside me suddenly unleashed.


	24. Climax

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slipping some f-bombs in here! Just a head’s up

_Mina: “a Hindi originated name with multiple meanings”_

_“…love…helmet; protection…”_

I suddenly lost control of my mind. Every inch of me was seething with rage, and just a second later, I shot up in my seat. I noticed Allison suddenly move the dishes that had been set in front of me out of the way, and she looked like she was ready to grab onto me and hold me down at any second.

Dad didn’t even flinch as I leaned as close to him as I could get, before starting to stalk around the table, an animal eyeing her prey she hoped to wound. I expected someone to stand and push me back, keep me from doing something I’d regret later, but all of my siblings remained completely still and silent, watching me with baited breath and wide eyes.

“Cut the shit,” I seethed, staring him down. I kept myself at a bit of a distance, standing right behind Klaus. “I don’t care who the fuck you are, you don’t talk to my brother like that. He’s asking for your help, and you just scoff? You’ve always been the worst fucking excuse for a father, but you _do not_ , under any circumstances, go after my brother.”

I refused to even breathe as Dad slowly got out of his chair, meeting my eyes almost head-on.

“What do you think?” Dad barked. “That a gesture like this would somehow prove your worth and change my mind? That I’d all of a sudden bend and help you all out?” Somehow, his glare intensified. “That I would agree with you? Do you think standing up for your siblings earns you brownie points?”

I could feel Klaus reaching out to grab my hand, but I slapped it away without thinking, unwilling to show any weakness.

“Your posture and unwillingness to meet eyes with anyone at the table shows me you are a woman buried deep with insecurities, who thinks her family will fill the hole she has inside her. Do you expect them to just fix your problems because you’re trying to fix theirs?”

Just because he was right didn’t mean I was going to let my crumbling insides show. Instead, I slammed my hand on the table, causing the rest of my siblings to flinch.

“Insecurities you fucking created!” I screamed. “I was perfectly fine until you started to pit me against everyone else at this goddamned table. I starved and pushed myself, and I nearly died all because of you!”

For a moment, I almost thought I saw Dad flinch, as though I’d broken his cold exterior, but it just appeared to be a trick of the eye.

“Then your mind is weak. A strong person would fight through the criticism and use it to improve, rather than as an excuse for their own uncontrollable emotions and failing health. You can’t possibly be good enough for a team of heroes if you work like this.”

I wanted to scream right in his face, as loud as I could, but before I got the chance, Klaus’s arms shot up in the air, nearly striking me, and he began to twitch violently. Dad took the chance to sit back down in his chair, and I fell out of my trance, eyeing the man beneath me with concern. A few of the others at the table shook their heads and looked away from the scene, while others merely shifted their concerned gazes to Klaus.

“Is he having a seizure?” Allison asked as Klaus began to choke, his breaths coming out in short gasps.

“Overdosing, probably,” Diego sighed, as though it wasn’t that big of a deal.

I crouched down and set my hands on my brother’s shoulders, trying to get him to come back from whatever this was, but he wasn’t responding at all. Part of him did still appear to be in there, as he looked to me with desperate eyes before slowly turning to look in Dad’s direction.

“I’m…” he managed to get out, though it sounded weak and strained. Dad did seem to be a bit alarmed by whatever was happening, but it quickly switched to annoyance.

“Out with it, boy,” he ordered. Klaus took a deep breath, gasping for air. I couldn’t quite make out whatever he said next, but immediately after, the fit died down.

I shook my head as Klaus collapsed to the floor, groaning in pain. I had no idea what just went on there, especially because I’d never seen him do that before, but it would be good for him to get off the floor. Carefully, I kneeled down and slung an arm under his shoulders, guiding him back up into his chair.

“You gonna be okay?” He managed to nod, and although I didn’t completely trust it, I still decided to make my way back to my chair.

“Well,” Dad sighed, scooping up his books and papers. “Thank you for coming. I’ve seen about enough.”

I felt a guilt beginning to manifest in my stomach as Five straightened, desperate to stop Dad from completely abandoning us. I’d been part of the reason Dad wasn’t taking us seriously; part of this failed mission was _my_ fault.

“No, I…” Dad didn’t even bother to stop at the sound of my voice.

Out of nowhere, Luther slammed his fists down on the table and stood up straight. My hand flew over my mouth to stifle laughter as he ripped his shirt open suddenly, sending buttons flying and revealing his ape chest he usually preferred to keep hidden beneath clothing.

“Look at what you did to me!” he demanded, staring Dad dead in the eye. The older man flinched as he looked to his future son for a moment, before the disappointment settled back in. “Look at it!”

“Oh, shit,” I heard Five mutter beside me. “Why?” While I wanted to be upset, this honestly was too entertaining not to laugh. Luther, of all people, was standing up to Dad for the second time this evening.

Dad, on the other hand, wasn’t the least bit amused. Slowly, he turned to head back toward the doors, when his eyes fell on Five, and it was as though something sparked in his mind.

“You, in the culottes.” Five appeared shocked as Dad pointed directly at him. “A word, in private?”

Five hesitated as we watched Dad change his path and head toward the bar instead. Defeated, the rest of our siblings started to gather up their things and began to head toward the door. I heard Allison shout something about the check, but honestly, I was just so desperate to get out of there that I didn’t pay in any mind. I was just helping Klaus up from his chair and starting to head toward the doors, when a voice called out to me.

“Mina?” I turned to see Five looking up at me with scared eyes. “You going?”

I glanced to Klaus underneath my arms, unsure of what to do. Allison noticed I’d paused, then looked to Five, who was staring right at me, and made her way over to take Klaus from my arms.

“Do you want me to stay?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. Luther’s words from earlier were still in my ear, so I was trying my best not to hover. If he wanted me to stay, I would, but if not, I wouldn’t argue with him.

“Yes.” His words came out small and quiet, like the life had been sucked out of him, but I still heard it. My heart dropped for a moment, looking at how defeated Dad had left him, so I made my way over and pulled him into a brief hug.

“I’ll be right here when you’re done.”

I slid back down into the chair I had been sat in and leaned back, allowing my eyes to scan around the bar Dad had chosen for us to meet in. This didn’t seem like the sort of establishment I would picture him in, and I couldn’t piece together what would motivate him to pick something like this place. Dad was full of surprises sometimes, I supposed.

“I asked for a private word,” Dad said loudly, looking in my direction. He’d caught me off-guard, causing me to hesitate for a second.

“I asked her to stay,” Five jumped in. “She’s staying here.”

We shared a smile, then I turned my attention back to everything else. Their conversation was too quiet for me to be able to hear anything, but I didn’t mind. Whatever Dad wanted to say to Five was their business, and I wasn’t about to be one to attempt to eavesdrop. At a couple points, wait staff came up to me and asked if I wanted a drink, but I refused. I had enough yesterday to last me a year, and although tonight’s events made alcohol tempting, I decided against it.

Unfortunately, when the conversation was concluded, Five came away looking more defeated than when we started. His shoulders were slumped about as far as they could go, and he didn’t speak a word as the two of us headed out of the bar and into the elevator, sending us back down. We were about halfway through our ride when I felt a weight push against my side, and when I looked down, I saw my brother slowly pressing himself closer, attempting to get a hug without actually looking like it.

Smiling, I reached over and slung an arm around his shoulders, squeezing tight for reassurance.


	25. Crossroads

The street outside was quiet, only the idling of car engines permeating through the stillness. The soft glow of a pair of headlights gave me just enough illumination to spot Luther and Diego impatiently waiting for me in the car; at least they didn’t leave me behind—not that I expected them to normally. They were hurt and beaten down until they were mere shells of themselves. I wouldn’t have blamed them if they wanted to just immediately turn and head back to Elliott’s.

Not wanting to hold the pair up any longer, I turned to Five and pointed my thumb toward the car. He had a distant, fearful look in his eyes, and I begged it was just because Dad had done a number on him… even if he wasn’t one to show it on the outside.

“You want to ride back with us?” I asked quietly, even though no one else was around. “It doesn’t look like Vanya’s in there, so you’d have plenty of room to.” Five remained completely silent, staring down at his shoes. Worry began to breed in the pit of my stomach, causing it to toss and turn. “Hey, what’s going on?”

Slowly, Five brought his eyes up. He was obviously trying his best to keep away the fear in his eyes and remain stone-faced, but it was too overwhelming for him, and after moving one foot back and forth a few times in a sort of hesitant dance, he stepped about as far away from me as he could get without obstructing his words, his head shaking back and forth.

“I don’t have any other choice,” he murmured, his words coming out pained. I furrowed my brows and took a few careful steps closer, causing him to nearly jump back. What the hell was happening here? “It’s the only way to stop everything and get us back home.”

He still wasn’t making any sense. While I’d understood his motives since day one, he’d made it sound like we’d run out of options, now that Dad was out. What had he been hiding under the vest?

“Five, what the hell are you on about?” I questioned, finally managing to get a little closer to my brother without him flinching. As his gaze rose again, my heart dropped in my chest, recognizing the pure agony pounding behind his eyes as his emotions finally slipped through.

“I have another way to get us home.” His voice broke and cracked several times in just a few words, but I paid no mind to it. “But I have to agree to a deal I really don’t want to make. I have to do something… I don’t want to do.”

I shook my head, still unsure of what he was trying to hint at, but a few things were starting to make more sense.

“Is that where you were earlier?” His nod was nearly imperceptible.

His shoulders had completely slumped with regret at this point, unable to hunch any further down. Whatever this was… I’d never seen him this tormented before, not even when he talked about witnessing death. This was something different entirely—something he’d tried his best to avoid, but knew there was absolutely no other way.

“I had a run-in with my old boss.” My eyes rolled back into my head immediately. Though I’d never had the displeasure of meeting the Handler, hearing about her from Five was enough. If I ever ran into that woman, there’d be blood spilled for sure. “She offered me a deal that would get us back to 2019, and erase both of the apocalypses.”

For a split second, I wondered what exactly was so bad about that. We would get to leave this time period, and at least for probably no more than a moment, we wouldn’t have to worry about the world ending? I’d take it in a heartbeat.

However, my common sense came back to me, and the realization of what Five was being asked to do dawned on me. This woman only knew one kind of transaction, only accepted payment in the form of red stains forever worked into the skin of the vulnerable, taken advantage of by her promises. I wanted to tell Five he couldn’t do it, promise we’d find some other way, or that we’d stop the doomsday here and bite our tongues and finally just live in this time. It’s not like anyone in 2019 would be wondering where we were—they were all dead.

But I wasn’t his mother, and we had people to save. This was the only way.

“What do you need me to do?” It pained me that was all I offered up, but I fought down the part of me screaming to grab him and run.

Five’s eyes searched around us vigorously, as though he’d somehow find the answers in the vast nothingness of the endless stretching roads.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, finally facing a sort of defeat. “I don’t know. I want…” He couldn’t even get through his sentence. I tried my best to follow his possible lines of thinking, but this was a complete curveball. “If you came with me…”

It was my turn to take a step back. I blinked at Five, incredulous and unsure of what to even say to that. Last time we’d dealt with talks about the Commission, Five had said he never wanted me anywhere near their operations, but now he was genuinely considering it. The mere thought of having to be around what I knew this mission would entail made my heart spike.

“Is that what you want?” I asked, my voice catching slightly in my throat. The silence that lingered afterwards was painfully long, sinking into me like a rusty knife, until finally, he offered a brutal suggestion.

“It’s up to you.”

It felt like time froze around me, stopping anything that dared to breathe or blow in the wind. This could potentially be fatal, a literal matter of life and death if he wasn’t careful. If I was there, I could keep watch, make sure no one would try to take him down before he could do what he needed to do. I hated the thought of being an accessory to murder, but it could get our family home and erase two endings.

But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to even think of being near something like that.

“I don’t think I can, Five,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.” Slowly, he nodded, thankfully without a trace of malice.

“I get it.” Without my realization, my hands began to twitch as my mind started racing faster and faster. “If it helps at all, they’re not good people.”

It didn’t.

“Just… be safe.”

Right as I was turning to leave, Five took large bounds forward and pulled me into a hug, attempting to offer reassurance that things would be fine. It didn’t matter how old he was, physically or mentally. The thought of my brother going in to do something like that at any age chilled and concerned me. I felt no better at that moment than I did before, but all I could do at this point was wait.

Once Five blinked away, I made my way back to the car, where Diego and Luther were still waiting for me. I didn’t speak a word to either of them, sliding into the back seat and buckling myself in immediately as a sign I wanted to get off this God forsaken property. Still, Diego’s curiosity got the better of him as Luther backed out and headed off onto the main road to get us home.

“What’s he doing?” he inquired, turning back to look right at me. I could feel his gaze drilling holes through me, but I refused to tear my eyes away from the window.

“What he has to,” was all I offered.

The rest of the car ride remained in a tense silence, likely more from my end than anything else. While the evening’s events had ripped holes into all of us, it appeared my brothers had managed to at least mostly recover. We’d mope and brood for a little while longer, maybe even throw some verbal punches at another sibling once or twice, but in the end, everything would be forgiven, and we’re remember we were always there to support each other, even if Dad wasn’t.

However, the moment we pulled into the parking space in front of Elliott’s, something felt like it was pressing down on my chest, trying to suffocate me. This had happened a few times before in my life, but I tried to think nothing of it, passing it off as the lingering disdain for the way events unfolded tonight. I didn’t regret standing up to Dad, but that made it no less terrifying.

Diego and Luther slid out of the car before me, not waiting for their sister to finish her mental episode and head inside. I lingered for another second, unsure of whether or not I actually wanted to move, then managed to unbuckle the seatbelt and slide out of the vehicle. Thankfully, the pair that went in before me left the door unlocked, so I wouldn’t be stuck outside as the chill started to fall over the night air. I meticulously turned all the locks on the back alley door before turning on my heel and heading upstairs. The silence of the rooms above me unnerved me slightly, but I tried to reason that Elliott may have already fallen asleep, so we wouldn’t have the chance to explain where we’d run off to until the morning.

All of that went out the window once I rounded the corner and found Diego crouched on the floor, starting at something while Luther leaned over him. Carefully, I crept my way closer, and I thought at least one of them would have heard and noticed it was me, but I was dead wrong. Once I was close enough, Diego shot up suddenly and swung his arm out, attempting to stab me in the chest. I flinched, caught off guard for a second, and only managed to keep myself from getting stabbed right in the heart at the last second. I shot him a glare, violently throwing his hand from my grasp, and pushed past him, attempting to take a look at what he’d been so fascinated with.

My panic grew as my eyes rested on a very clear puddle of deep red blood, already beginning to coagulate and turn to gel. It had been here a while…

That’s when I moved to stand, and noticed an odd shape poking out from behind the dentist’s chair Elliott kept in his living room as an extra seating arrangement. It almost looked like a person…

My breath caught itself in my chest as I looked between the blood stain on the floor and the shadow in front of me, placing the pieces together to form a morbid final picture. I didn’t want to do it, to prove it was real, but someone had to, and my dim-witted brothers were still darting in and out of rooms for the millionth time, as though something would have changed in the last two seconds.

With limbs slowly turning to jelly, I took hesitant, precise steps into the living room. The shadows began to shift the closer I got to the figure, my suspicions unfortunately molding themselves into a reality with each movement I made. I stood right behind the chair, freezing in place and unwilling to face the truth. But I had to do it. I had to be the one.

It took everything in me to remain standing and keep my eyes on Elliott’s body as I whipped around to face the front of my chair. Blood ran down his chin and disappeared under his plaid shirt, disrupting the otherwise uniform pattern slightly. A scalpel had been jabbed right into his eye socket, while a drill and a set of pliers hung from his mouth, which was filled up with a few loose teeth. Someone had used their environment around them to their advantage, save for the random, unfamiliar knife plunged into Elliott’s chest. They hadn’t gone for his heart, his brain, or any artery, which would have put him out of his misery relatively quickly. Whoever did this _wanted_ Elliott to suffer.

I felt like I was going to be sick.

“Diego?” I called out weakly, spots beginning to take over my vision as I stumbled slightly, now unable to peel my eyes away from the grotesqueness for even a second. “Luther?”

My brothers threw open the door of Elliott’s office and came running over immediately, their eyes wide in alarm as they watched me sway. Diego booked it straight to my side, grabbing onto my arm to help keep me upright, while Luther dared to take in what I had been fixated with. I winced as I stole another glance at his body, then buried my face in Diego’s shoulder, the image still burned forever into my mind. I felt him set a hand on my other arm, trying to provide reassurance the best he could as he took in shaky breaths. I could feel him begin to tremble with rage, but I was in no place to attempt and quell him at this point.

I still refused to peel myself away from Diego as I heard Luther’s footsteps move toward the railing, pausing a moment before he spoke up.

“Holy shit.”

Curious but cautious, Diego and I made our way over to where Luther was standing, peering over the rail to spot three words written in blood across the tiled floor.

_ÖGA FÖR ÖGA_

What in the hell…?

Diego took care to keep my eyes away from Elliott’s corpse as he, Luther and I turned back around and headed in toward the kitchen. Once I’d been moved out of a place where I could see the corpse, Diego removed himself from my side and swiftly opened the door to Elliott’s bedroom, removing the sheet from the bed and using it to cover up the atrocity. I couldn’t form a comprehensive thought, couldn’t even bring myself to move on my own. Seeing this, Luther made his way over to me and pulled me into a tight hug, trying his damn hardest to offer some sort of comfort for the both of us.

Once Diego returned, I heard him and Luther begin to whisper about what the words written on the floor could possibly mean, and while I slowly slid down against the wall to take a seat in one of the chairs at the kitchen table, the latter of the two started to brew coffee and caffeinated tea.

Not that we’d need it tonight… or for several nights to follow.


	26. Öga för Öga

Exhaustion tugged vigorously at my eyelids, begging for just a second of sleep, but every time they dared to fall shut, the image of Elliott’s mutilated, violated, drained corpse appeared in the darkness, lingering close like a lost child attempting to find a sense of safety. The night had passed without a trace of an answer, leaving us with no better idea of who came for Elliott than when we got home. Diego and Luther managed to fall asleep somehow, though I heard the former mumbling and tossing in his sleep on a few occasions. With no one to talk to, I’d retired into the room that had formerly belonged to Elliott and just laid down on the bed. For a moment, my hand drifted over to the other side, feeling the cool material against the pads of my fingers. I swore I could still feel each dip and curve in the places where Lila had slept not long ago.

I needed her right about now.

Footsteps outside my door compelled me outside, though I still wanted nothing to do with that body. Hesitantly, I wrapped my fingers around the handle and tugged, causing artificial light to come flooding in. My brothers stood by Elliott’s body, removing the various weapons and tools stabbed deep into it. Immediately, I turned my head away, the small appetite I’d worked up melting away again.

“Mina?” I shook my head, refusing Diego’s disguised offer to turn around. “He’s covered back up.”

I knew it was just underneath a sheet, but somehow, that made me feel a little better, so I finally turned on my heel and headed back over toward my brothers. Diego wiped one of his knives, which had been plunged into Elliott’s chest, against his shirt before setting it into the last empty place in his holster and setting an arm against my shoulder. I reached up and squeezed his hand, still in a bit of a daze.

“I can’t believe Elliott’s dead,” I whispered as hot tears started to fight their way up.

“He was a good guy,” Diego affirmed. “Deserved better than this.”

“Yeah,” Luther agreed.

The thoughts of Elliott’s body being beneath the sheet in front of me caused a prickling sensation to run over my skin. Instinctually, I pulled away and crossed my arms, rubbing my hands against my elbows.

“Elliott must’ve been getting too close to the truth,” Diego began to mutter, crossing the room and staring down at the bloody words written on the tile below us. “It smells like the feds.” Despite my state, I still rolled my eyes and glared at my brother, ready to chew him out.

“What? Are you out of your mind?” Luther scoffed, beating me to the punch.

“Diego, if this was the federal government, they would take him somewhere and question him, they wouldn’t…” I flicked my gaze back to the sheet momentarily, unwilling to remember what was beneath. “…do that. No, this is the work of a psychopath.”

My shoulders hunched a little further as my stomach began to turn as the realization hit me that my brother was out there doing this exact same thing. I hadn’t seen him kill someone in the way the Commission had taught him to, but given how ruthless and cold-blooded he made the organization and its leader sound, I doubted he was just going in there and slipping a little poison in their food or some shit.

“’Oga Foroga,’” Diego read out loud, like we hadn’t already committed it to memory. “That a name?”

Taking care not to disturb Elliott’s corpse, I made my way over to Diego’s side and leaned over. The breaks in each word didn’t make it seem like it was some sort of name, not to mention Diego didn’t exactly have a track record for hitting the nail on the head when it came to deciphering.

“’Oga Foroga,’” Luther repeated as he gripped the rail beside me. He and his brother exchanged a glance, leaning forward more to go right past my judgement. “I’ll look her up.”

I followed my brothers with my eyes, watching them confidently stride into the kitchen. I could hear the pages rustling in the phonebook Diego, Five and I had pulled out when we tried to look up Dad’s address, bringing back memories that stung deep in my mind. My hands gripped my elbows tighter, leaving little marks and fading circles of red as my nails dug deep into my skin.

“Holy shit,” Luther exclaimed, “I found her. Olga Foroga. That must be her.”

“Call the bitch,” Diego growled.

That was enough. Making a wide arc around the chair, I took big strides into the kitchen, trying to cut my brothers off before they did something stupid and potentially got the cops called on us, which definitely wouldn’t fare well for us with a mutilated body on the premises and words written in blood.

“Guys, come on,” I groaned, leaning against the doorframe as Luther turned the dial to call the number on the page. “I know you normally share one brain cell, but even you guys have to know there’s probably a more logical explanation.” Both of my brothers ignored me, instead opting to follow through on their own theory.

“It’s ringing,” Luther informed us, acting like I was going along with this plan. After a couple more seconds, I could hear the line click on the other end, indicating someone had answered. “Uh, hello, Olga?” Luther set one hand over the receiver and lowered his voice. “It’s her. She sounds old. What should I say?”

That right there would have been an indication to any other person that they hadn’t found the solution, but this was Luther and Diego. They weren’t exactly known for their logic and ability to piece things together.

“Just—“ Diego aggressively twirled his hand as I lowered my face down into my palms, shaking my head with both secondhand embarrassment and frustration.

“Excuse me, ma’am. Um, I was just wondering—what?” Luther paused, allowing the woman on the other end of the line to clarify. My name? Is, uh, Luther Hargreeves, and—“ Having reached his breaking point, Diego snatched the phone from his brother and began to seethe as he spoke.

“You killed one of ours, Olga, now we’re coming after you. You will be dead by nightfall,” he threatened. I started to push myself off the wall, ready to diffuse, when a voice cut in beside me.

“Hey.” I jumped as my heart nearly shot up out of my throat, further upsetting my already tense state. I hadn’t heard Five come in, either by blink or the door, but at least he was back…

…and covered in a shitload of blood. Jesus Christ

“It’s ‘Öga för Öga’, idiots,” he corrected, complete with the correct pronunciation. “Swedish for ‘an eye for an eye’. It means the Swedes killed Elliott.”

Immediately, Diego’s hostility melted away, and mentally, I muttered a thanks that Caller ID hadn’t been invented yet.

“Wrong number. Have a lovely day.” I raised an eyebrow at the brothers across from me as they glanced back, sheepish.

“I told you there was a different explanation,” I sighed. Diego nudged Luther slightly, silently signaling him to pull it together.

“We would have gotten it,” Luther shrugged, trying to shake the incident off.

“Eventually,” Diego affirmed.

“Yeah.”

I flinched as Five brushed against my arm, making his way into the bathroom. I hated that I wasn’t at all phased by the blood, unlike my two brothers in front of me, but I knew what Five was getting into.

“Uh, you have some blood on you,” Diego observed, watching his brother with alarm.

“A lot of blood, actually.” After a moment of silence, I felt their eyes fall to me, probably expecting me to begin berating him. But, instead, I moved over to the chair directly across from the bathroom doorway and turned to look in at Five as he wetted a paper towel to clean the red liquid off his face.

“How many?” I asked quietly, semi-afraid of the answer. Diego and Luther seemingly took that as their cue to give us some space, making their way back into the living room.

“Eleven people, and a fish in a tank with a humanoid body.” Five barely missed a beat as he answered, and when I finally processed everything he said, I furrowed my brows. That last one didn’t seem like it was possible, but if he said it existed…

The longer I processed Five’s kill count, the more I felt like I was about to vomit. Those were eleven—technically twelve—bodies, possibly more mutilated and brutalized than Elliott’s, all the in the name of getting home. It felt like, since Five came back, the corpses had started piling up, some of them created by my own hands or powers. It was sickening, to think of myself as a casual killer now.

“I’m sorry about Elliott,” Five muttered, beginning to clean under his finger nails. “He was a good guy.” I sighed and leaned against the table, shaking my head.

“This isn’t who I wanted to be,” I admitted, my voice still low. “I don’t want to kill, and I don’t want to be the reason someone’s killed.”

“You don’t know it’s your fault,” my brother countered. “

“The Swedes killed him.” My voice began to get louder as I began to get angrier. “That means it’s The Commission’s work, and one of the people they’re after is me. Even if the rest of our siblings are involved in that, I’m a part of this bullshit.”

“It’s not like we haven’t done this before. We fought a lot of people in the past.”

“No. When we were kids, and we fought someone, we’d just subdue them, and then Dad would haul them off to… who the hell even knows where. We never killed.” I pushed myself up from the chair and turned on my heel. “I’m not you, Five. I can’t look at taking someone’s life like it’s a casual, normal thing.”

Five slammed the bathroom door to finish cleaning off the blood. My leg bounced at the speed of sound, attempting to comfort and calm me down.

It’s not Five’s fault, kept running through my head.

Whatever The Commission had done to him, something so painful he couldn’t begin to talk about it, they’d changed him. Five had been cocky and indifferent when we were young, but I knew he never wanted to see someone die, even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud. This version of him that came back acted like a completely different person, not just an older him trapped in his younger body.

I remained in the kitchen, facing the counter as Five emerged from the bathroom completely cleaned off.

“So, I found us a way home,” he announced to all of us, despite the fact I already knew.

“What?” Luther snapped his head up and looked in Five’s direction as he finished tightening his belt. Only now did I notice both my brothers had changed their outfits, donning completely black ensembles.

“All the details are irrelevant, but… I made a deal to get back to our timeline.”

“What about doomsday?” Diego questioned, peeking his head through the door.

“Won’t happen,” Five answered bluntly.

“And the 2019 apocalypse?”

“Everything will be back to normal.” I restrained myself from pointing out that technically, the apocalypse that happened in 2019 was ‘normal’. “All right? Now, no more questions. We gotta go. We have to find the others, right?”

“Yeah.” Luther blinked at Five, clearly still attempting to process everything being thrown at him at once.

“Luther and Diego, you get Allison,” my brother barked. “Mina, Klaus. I’ll find Vanya.”

My head spun with the speed at which he was delivering his orders, but I managed to catch that I was going to get to see Klaus. Back at Allison’s salon, he’d talked about the mansion he’d bought and gave me the address, inviting all of us over sometime, so I already knew where I was going. I definitely needed to see him after everything that had just happened.

“Now, we meet back in the arrival alley in 77 minutes.” My eyes widened. That wasn’t enough time. “Here.” Five came back to us with four small, matching watches, placing them each in our hands. “I’ve synchronized these watches.”

“Okay.” Luther secured the watch around his wrist as he spoke. “Let’s do this.”

As I pushed the prong through the last loop, the realization we were leaving for good really started to sink in. I still had a couple loose ends to tie up here, but more important than anything, I hadn’t spoken to Lila in days. I needed to see her again before we left. I couldn’t just go and pretend she didn’t exist.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.” Five stopped dead in his tracks and whipped around to face Diego, who spoke up before I got the chance. “You show up here drenched in blood and expect everything’s gonna go back to normal if we go home now?”

“Elliott just got _killed_ because of us,” I snapped, my voice warbling.

“What about Dad? What about JFK?” I rolled my eyes, turning away from him. He was so goddamn focused on something he might not be able to change.

“Diego, we have a chance to go home and make things right.” Five seethed, getting right up in his brother’s face. “We are taking it.”

Though I agreed with Five, the thought of Lila kept biting at me, knawing away the last little part of me not dragged down with grief and guilt.

“I have to say goodbye to Lila,” I whispered, just loud enough for Five to hear. His rage shifted over to me, but I held my own the best I could. After all, being his blood sister, I got very used to him looking at me like this.

“Lila doesn’t give a shit about you, Mina!” he screamed, reaching the point of rage where he was gesticulating. “She never did.”

“You’re just saying that because you don’t like her,” I scoffed, waving my hand dismissively.

“I’m sorry, what happened to my opinion on her mattering?” I froze, caught in my own loop. “She’s one of them. She’s a member of the Commission.”

I felt something inside of me crash to the ground and shatter. She couldn’t be, there was no way. I refused to believe it. Five was just angry, letting things out on me.

“No way,” I denied. “Not possible.”

“She was just using you to get to me.” Five’s anger started to melt away a bit, and only then did I notice the way I’d begun to tremble. “She already knew we were twins, Mina. I’m sorry, but that’s the only reason she gave you the time of day. I’m sure she knew Diego was our brother, too, and that’s why she got planted in the asylum.”

The falling sensations turned into a bitter sting, and I began to question why exactly Five thought this was the right moment to deliver all that information at once. Inexplicably, I felt an intense rage directed in two directions, wrapped up in a layer of a bitter sadness. Why was it the two times I fell in love, it was taken from me?

Five took a couple steps forward, looking as though he was attempting to offer me a hug, but I pushed away and made my way toward the back door, desperately needing some time with Klaus now. I barely heard as Five blinked away, and I left my siblings to stare as I walked away from the family that had been there for me.


	27. Long Gone Brother

My eyebrows flew up toward my forehead as I stared up at the awe of the mansion in front of me. When Klaus described where he lived, I honestly thought he’d been lying, and in reality, he was camped out in a box under some bridge. But this… this house was filled with majesty and grandeur, far more than I was accustomed to associating with Klaus. It would have been honorable, even impressive, were it not for the way he acquired his wealth.

Though I could hear a multitude of voices in the backyard, I chose to ring the doorbell, unsure of what I would find if I barged in through the gate. It took a few moments, but finally, a short man dressed in a blue kurta swung open one of the large doors, staring at me with confusion. Self-consciously, I stared down at my purple sweater and grey pants, realizing I stuck out like a sore thumb among the ranks.

“Welcome to the Temple of Destiny’s Children!” the man greeted. I resisted the urge to snicker at the name, unsure of how Klaus would be able to explain his way out of that one when the 90s rolled around. “What has brought you to us today?” I remained silent for a moment, still gawking at the strange man in front of me, before I finally collected myself.

“Uh, I’m here to see Klaus?” I spoke like it was a question, unsure of whether or not they knew him by that name.

“Ah! You mean the Prophet.” He seemed a little too enthusiastic at the mention of Klaus’ name, causing me to take a step back. “Have you come to join us?”

“No, _no_ ,” I denied quickly. “I’m his sister, actually. I have to talk to him.” The man cocked his head at me.

“The Prophet never mentioned having siblings.” Still he let me in and led me through Klaus’ mansion.

Paintings of my brother hung all over the walls, admired by several individuals all donning the same baby blue, muttering prayers I couldn’t hear. As I passed by one group, I noticed strange markings on their hands, and only then did it hit me they all had those same ‘hello, goodbye’ tattoos Klaus did. Once again, I had to hold back my laughter. Maybe it was because I’d known Klaus our whole lives, but I could never imagine listening to anything he said and thinking it was anywhere close to prayer or scripture. Not that we’d been a religious household to begin with.

Outside wasn’t any less creepy. Klaus’ disciples were multiplying by the second, crowding around to greet me with wide smiles and sayings that were a little too familiar.

“So, how does this whole thing work?” I inquired, imbibed with a morbid curiosity. “Like, is there some sort of prayer book Klaus has you guys memorize, or does he have morning rituals or something?” The man brightened up a little too quickly at the mere mention of anything involving Klaus.

“We have his vedas and scriptures to follow. Those of us who followed him from the beginning pass them down to new followers of his teachings.” With my interest piqued, I decided to inquire further.

“What’s his most famous teaching?” The man barely missed a beat.

“’Don’t go chasing waterfalls. Stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to.’”

I couldn’t help myself—I choked on my own saliva as I stopped dead in my tracks, trying my best to cover up the fact I’d begun to laugh at something he considered genuine life advice. Of all the places Klaus could take a phrase from, it had to be a “TLC” song. I didn’t dare to think of what would happen when the time finally came around for that song to release, and these people heard the lyric sung. Part of me wanted to be there to see it.

Trying my best to recover, I stood up straighter and turned the laughs into coughs—a clichéd move, but it seemed to work on this guy. He resumed his joyful steps, leading me all the way back through the acres of land Klaus possessed, before finally bringing me to a set of gardens on what felt like the edge of the world. A few disciples of his were tending to trees of fruits and beds of flowers—the same ones I’d noticed scattered in the pool waters back when we first came outside—giving the air a lilting aroma that attempted to lure you in and make you stay there.

Klaus was some sort of evil genius, somewhere deep under the surface…

“He’s right over there. Come find any of us if you need anything else.” Like that, he scampered away, retreating as though he hadn’t even been there in the first place.

I shook my head as I noticed Klaus sitting in a bed of mulch, a girl I’d never seen wrapped around his waist. Hadn’t he just been whining about and pining after Dave? How could he just switch so quickly like that? From what I understood, Klaus felt like Dave was the love of his life.

Slightly off put, I took large steps over a set of bushes and approached my brother and the girl, right as she leaned in and started to kiss him.

“Yes, you are, Daddy,” I heard her muse before she went right back to kissing him as aggressively as possible. Strangely, Klaus seemed to be pulling away and pushing her. The closer I got, I noticed something wasn’t right about his posture and the way he protested. It didn’t sound like Klaus talking… but that was ridiculous.

“Hey, D…” I trailed off and shook my head. My intention had been to make fun of the nickname, but I just couldn’t get the word to come out of my mouth, especially when it was directed toward one of my brothers. “Klaus. You got a sec?”

As he looked up at me, his eyes went wide as dinner plates, and he immediately pushed the girl away. He stared at me as though I was some foreign object, his hands beginning to tremble as he stood.

“Mina!” He sounded as though his voice was about to break. What was wrong with him today?

My eyes briefly flicked down to the watch Five had given me, noticing time was running out a little faster than I would have liked. I hated to be harsh and short with Klaus, but I didn’t have much of a choice at this rate.

“Come on, we gotta go,” I urged. Klaus fully moved the girl away from him and started to follow me.

“Yeah. I’ll be right back,” he assured her before fully turning away. I flashed her an awkward smile and a wave, unsure of how exactly to react to all of this.

“Nice to meet you,” I stated before quickly dashing after my brother, trying my best to just put all of that out of my head. “You need to come with me,” I urged as we moved back through the line of trees.

“Where?” I flinched slightly as a woman bowed a little too close to my feet, nearly tripping me, and muttered ‘prophet’ a couple of times.

“Five found a way home.” Rather than responding in a normal fashion, Klaus just started to giggle.

“It’s so great to talk to you again, Mina.” I furrowed my brows and stared directly into his eyes, unsure of what was causing his change in demeanor and behavior.

“Klaus, you literally saw me yesterday at dinner… and the day before that, we spent, like, four hours together.” I focused a little closer on his pupils, the most likely possibility finally hitting me. “Are you high, Klaus?”

“No, I’m not Klaus.” I laughed bitterly, stopping dead in my tracks shaking my head. He’d fallen right back off the wagon. It saddened me, more than anything else. “I’m Ben.”

“You _are_ high,” I sighed. “You said Ben was always with you— and I knew he came through the portal after you started talking to no one last night, by the way—but you never mentioned anything about possession. That doesn’t make any sense.” I turned away and pulled on his arm. “I don’t have time for this.”

“I can prove it!” Klaus insisted. “Ask me something only Ben would know.”

If it got him to keep moving and follow me back to the alley. I’d try anything at this point.

“Fine, I’ll bite.” I cast my eyes behind him, as though I’d somehow be able to see Ben’s ghost there. “But I’m whispering it so that if Ben is back there, he can’t help you cheat.”

I tapped my finger against my chin, trying to come up with something I could use. Klaus, Ben, and I had been together for so much of our childhood, it was hard to pinpoint an experience that involved only the latter of the two and I. Finally, a distant memory of a late-night birthday celebration came to mind, and I leaned in close.

“What was engraved in the silver bookmark I gave you for our tenth birthday?” I leaned back and watched Klaus’ face shift immediately, a sentimental, far-off smile on his face. 

“’We age, not by years, but by stories, -- unknown.’”

I gasped, overwhelmed with tears as I stared into the eyes of the brother I’d missed for so many years. Everyone else had gone to bed when I gave Ben that gift, having nearly forgotten about it, and he never let it leave his sight for even a second. There was no earthly way Klaus could know that.

My body froze for a moment, unsure of what to do, before I launched myself forward and pulled Ben into a hug, squeezing him as tightly as possible. Even though he was in Klaus’ body, it still somehow felt like it was him. I wanted to apologize and to catch up on everything, but we had to get moving first. Still, I couldn’t bear the thought of letting go, so I kept one arm around his waist as I pulled away.

“How… and what… I mean, you’re… Ben, I missed you so much,” I sobbed, unable to control myself. “I don’t understand… You know what? You can tell me all about it on the way back to 2019. Okay?” Immediately, Ben shifted into worry.

“What about Destiny’s Children? We can’t just leave them,” he pointed out. “Klaus should be the one to tell them—“

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no, okay?” I interjected. “You know how much I love Klaus, but you need to stay in this body. We need someone responsible behind the wheel.” However, Ben still resisted.

“All right, Mina. Will you wait? I just need, like, ten minutes. Ten minutes.”

I turned to face him, my mind suddenly running. I didn’t intend to see Lila, not after what Five said had fully worked its way through my system, but there were other things I needed to take care of before we left. My eyes darted down to the watch again. If I left right now, I’d be able to get everything done with ten minutes to spare.

Was I ready to face everything? Absolutely not. But I had to suck it up so I could leave it all behind.

“Actually, there’s a couple of things I need to do first.” I reached out and squeezed Ben’s shoulder, unwilling to leave his side but acknowledging it had to be done. “Meet me in the alley behind Elliott’s in 30 minutes, okay? Don’t be late.”

“I won’t.” Coming from Ben, I knew the word would be honored. Before I turned to leave, I reached out and hugged him again, knowing this couldn’t last forever.

“I love you so much, Ben,” I whispered.

“I love you, too, Mina.”

With one last squeeze, I turned and ran back through the mansion, jump starting the car and driving away. I shouldn’t have known the address I wanted to visit—hell, I shouldn’t have been driving in that direction. I should have turned around and headed to Elliott’s, but as I parked in front of the large house and turned the car off, I knew it was too late. I didn’t have to hype myself up or force myself out of the car. A certain level of adrenaline pushed me all the way up to the door and lifted my hand to the knocker. Heels clicked behind the barrier, and I could hear the faint screaming and laughter of a baby.

Loose ends needed to be tied, otherwise the thread would unravel… not that it made much of a difference at this point.

My breath hitched in my throat as that pleasant, soft face stared back at me, some of her red curls falling in front of her face as she blinked. Neither of us spoke for a while, unsure of what to say, and I watched her face shift from shock, to anger, then to an overwhelming sadness.

“Mina?” Her words came out garbled, and I watched as her hand reached out a bit, before violently retracting itself. I tried my best to force a smile, pushing down the hatred I felt, not for her, but for what had happened to us.

“Hi, Helen.”


	28. Love's Labors Lost and Buried

The watch around my wrist ticked loudly, filling the silent void between Helen and I as I stood in her doorway, trying my best to fight the November chill slowly creeping its way into my bones. I glanced over Helen’s shoulder at the presence of movement, spotting a little bit of a human scooting along the ground, banging their arms against the floor occasionally. Helen noticed my staring and turned around, almost immediately swooping down and picking up her child before they got the chance to bolt out the door. He had a healthy amount of red curls sitting on the top of his head, occasionally falling in front of his eyes; I didn’t recognize the structure of his face, meaning it must have come from the other half of the pair.

“What—what the hell are you doing here?”

There was something hostile about her tone, shocking me slightly. I didn’t even know she could be angry, let alone snippy and short with someone. I knew she thought her mind was reshaped, or whatever bullshit they hammer into heads, but she’d changed her entire personality.

“It’s… sort of complicated.” She didn’t bother to fight a little, tiny smile that poked its way through.

“It always is.”

The two of us fell back into an uncomfortable silence, pulling at articles of clothing and moving our eyes back down to our feet, and, in Helen’s case, to the baby. I felt a conflict in my heart as I looked at that little thing, staring right back at me with big, brown eyes, curious as to who exactly this woman was at the door. This kid would go his whole life without ever knowing who his mother really was, instead living under something false, created by torture and the breaking of a desperate, worn-down spirit. The experience was different for everyone, but I knew Helen—never angry or violent, but damn, if she wasn’t a fighter.

Briefly, I glanced down at the watch wrapped securely around my wrist. I didn’t have much time left here if I wanted to get the last thing on my list done before I had to meet Five and the rest of our siblings back at what had been Elliott’s.

Once again, the image of his corpse pushed its way forward, and I quickly tried to brush it away by speaking.

“I know this is a little rude to ask, but… do you mind if I come in?” Without really waiting for an answer, I tried to take a step forward, but Helen quickly moved to block my path, the line of her gaze well past me, more focused on any neighbors. “Helen, you don’t have to worry about that. They’ll probably just think I’m a friend coming to visit.” That brought her attention back to me. I flinched as a certain fire lit behind her eyes, pushing me back without laying a finger on me.

“You can’t be here, Mina,” she snapped suddenly. “You just can’t.” I shook my head, trying to calm her back down.

“No, Helen, you don’t understand. I’m not here to—“

“You have to leave.” Her words came out with the fury of an army general’s barking commands. My jaw fell agape a little, unsure of who exactly was standing in front of me. This was just the shell of the woman I had been in love with not too long ago. “If David comes home, he’s gonna start askin’ questions, and I’m not gonna know how to answer them without…” Her breath caught in her throat, and her stern and tall posture faltered slightly.

It took everything in me not to reach out and grab her free hand, or brush some of that red hair out of her eyes. If any nosy neighbors were watching us, that absolutely would be seen as a red flag. When I looked at her, I didn’t see someone I loved anymore, at least not in the same way I had some time ago. That had faded, and for a while, it was replaced by someone else, but now, I wasn’t sure I loved anyone that wasn’t my family. Still, to see Helen broken like this, made a victim of the time she lived in…

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. It was stupid, it was a really dumb risk, and it was definitely fueled partially by nostalgia and dreams of what could have been, but we could do it. If Helen could come with us, maybe she’d be able to see what we could have in 2019; how she didn’t have to pretend to be someone she wasn’t.

But as soon as the idea fully passed through me, I knew it wouldn’t be possible. Taking someone that wasn’t supposed to be in that time could cause damaging repercussions, more than we’d likely already caused. Not to mention, I didn’t know how Helen would react to the modern world, nor did I have a guarantee that she would slowly forget who she’d been convinced she was and fall back into the woman I’d known.

I didn’t love this her, not anymore. She had to stay here. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t spare another minute to talk to her one last time.

“Look, I just… I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” I admitted, trying my best to keep my posture straight as usual. “I know there are things you refuse to talk about, and that’s fine, but as someone who cares about you, I can’t keep wondering if you’re doing okay. You don’t have to go in-depth, you don’t have to talk like everything’s fine and normal and happy, I just need _something_.”

For a moment, I thought she was maybe considering letting me in. Helen stepped back a little bit, the expressions on her face shifting in rapid-fire. The conflict in her kept on raging, fighting the war inside her with no less intensity than it did back when I first saw her after she had come back from that god-awful place.

Unfortunately, just a moment later, she fell back into that rigid, faking-happiness demeanor.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Helen really was trying her best to uphold this perfect wife image. “I have a husband that loves me, and I love him dearly, and I have a little boy to love. I live a happy life at home, cooking and cleaning the day away, and once my maternity leave is over, I’ll head back to the job at Neiman Marcus.”

I smiled to myself, trying to keep it subtle. Of course Helen worked there; only the most elegant of women worked there.

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay with you. I…” I clicked my heels together, trying to fight back the nerves. “Well, honestly, I met someone else, and things sort of went south with her, too—she wasn’t the person I thought she was—and ever since things started to go downhill, I started to wonder what your life was like, and now…” My eyes went right back to that little baby, who had somehow remained completely still most of the time. “…now I know.”

“Well, I hope you’re not planning to make these visits regular.”

It felt as though I’d been stabbed, right in my chest. I glared straight at Helen, unsure that what I’d just heard was correct. She wasn’t even bothering with pleasantries at this point, opting to instead just verbally push me out the door and away from her life. A certain rage started to build up in the pit of my stomach, one I knew all too well, but I tried my best not to let it be unleashed.

“Helen, I—“

“You can’t come back here, Mina.” I watched as conflicted tears started to well up in her eyes. “You are not welcome back. I don’t want to see you back here again, or I swear to God, Mina, I’ll…”

She couldn’t finish whatever that threat was meant to be, but that didn’t matter. I’d basically stopped listening at that point, my own bitter tears blurring my vision. Without hesitation, I took a step back, starting to head toward my car.

“Then I guess you’re lucky,” I hissed. “You’re not going to have to worry about me being around anymore.”

I could hear Helen calling out to me as I turned around and made my way into my car, but I didn’t want to spare anything for her, pulling out of her driveway as fast as I could. It was a risk even going there in the first place, and what did I expect? That she’d pull me into her arms and sob and we’d admit we still loved each other? That things wouldn’t have changed one bit between the two of us? I couldn’t love someone without it ending in tragedy, I’d learned that now. Helen was just the start of it all.

I still hadn’t completely composed myself as I pulled back up in front of Elliott’s building and made my way upstairs. I still had enough time to finish up things around here, but it would be a little tight, so I had to work fast. However, not long after I opened the door, Diego emerged from what had been Elliott’s bedroom. Immediately, I knew he could tell something was wrong, and although I’d convinced myself I didn’t have time to answer the line of questioning that was coming for me, in reality, I absolutely did.

“Hey, sis… what happened?” I shook my head, my eyes falling to my feet as he placed his hands on my upper arms, trying to get me to meet eyes with him. “You know you can tell me.” It still took me a minute, but I managed to finally get the problem out.

“I decided it was a good idea to go see Helen before I left.” Diego raised one of his brows, not filled in on the whole backstory. “She was… my last girlfriend. And her family found out about us and forced her into that goddamned conversion therapy, and…”

I couldn’t finish it, but I didn’t think I needed to, based on Diego’s reaction. Without any more hesitation, he pulled me into a hug, trying to offer a bandage for a wound that couldn’t be healed with anything but enough time for a scab to form. I thought that time had come, but the moment I saw her, it opened right back up again, and now, blood was everywhere.

Though I found this comforting, I didn’t want to waste much more time, so I pushed away and wiped my eyes, as though I could just get rid of anything that just happened.

“I, uh… I’m gonna go bury Elliott,” I announced. “There’s a lot of dirt near that water tower nearby, so I figured… I wouldn’t leave him here to rot.” Diego shook his head, trying to pull me back as I started to walk toward Elliott’s corpse, already beginning to smell.

“Mina, you don’t have to do that. I was planning on going soon to—“

“I need this,” I interrupted, offering him a sad smile. “I can carry the body no problem. And I’ll make sure I’m back in time.” I placed a finger over the smooth glass of the watch, its surface providing a little bit of comfort. “I have a promise to uphold to a certain brother, so I’ll have to be five minutes earlier.”

I knew Diego didn’t have a clue what the hell I was talking about, but I felt like that was one of those things I didn’t need to clarify. Those promises and deals were between my twin and I, and no one else really was allowed in on them unless we wanted them to be. It had always been that way.

The drive out to the water tower had been tortuous. The smell of the cadaver cut all the way through the trunk, to the point where I had to roll down my windows to keep from choking on it. I hoped no police officer or some random person walking along would catch a whiff of it as well and stop me, but I managed to get out there and unload the shovel and his body without anyone noticing, so I called that a win for the moment.

I wasn’t sure how long I had been digging for, when I heard footsteps crunching against the dirt. Given I had a mutilated body next to me, I was already on edge, and I honestly thought it was either one of the Swedes, or someone that followed me out from town that had smelled the rot and wanted to get their facts straight before calling someone. But, instead, when I turned around, shovel ready to strike, I just spotted the tall, beautiful woman I had loved so recently, dressed all in black, save for her bright red boots. Frustrated, I turned back to digging, not wanting to look directly at her for the moment.

“Oh, good,” I deadpanned. “It’s you.” Despite my unwelcoming demeanor, Lila dared to step closer.

“Weird time to garden,” she observed, attempting to make casual conversation like nothing happened. “Can we talk? The truth this time.” How unbelievably absurd that she would suggest something like that.

“Oh, I know the truth,” I scoffed, throwing away more dirt. “Did you really think Five wouldn’t tell me everything?” She crossed her arms and flicked her gaze away from me. Her guilt was almost convincing, but I had to remember who she worked for. “You used me, Lila. You’re a liar.”

“Oh, come on.” Lila almost sounded like she was laughing. “What did I really lie about?” I stood up straight, leaning against the shovel as I stared her down.

“Who you are, who you work for, why you’re here, what you want from us. That’s all.”

“Yeah, but the rest was true.” I shook my head in disbelief. It was like she didn’t believe she’d done anything wrong. “Everyone lies, Mina, and… and I was only lying to protect you. Mostly.” Furious, I slammed the shovel down into the dirt and dared to step closer to her, confronting her directly.

“You lied about loving me, too. You never gave a shit about me at all, you just wanted to use me to get to my brother. How in the hell is that lying to protect me?” Lila stuttered, unable to form an answer, and I moved back. “That’s just cruelty, plain and simple. Do you know how hard it is to trust people when your whole childhood was bullshit manipulation?” Surprisingly, she nodded. “Then why would you do that to me?” My line of questioning had left her speechless, shattering any chance I’d hoped for of maybe being able to forgive her. “Tell you what, I’m gonna finish this hole… get back to my family and go home, and forget we ever met.”

Hurt, Lila turned away and started to leave, when her eyes fell on the wagon with Elliott’s covered corpse in it. The way it had been positioned left his feet hanging out, and I watched as she recognized the greenish-yellow nail polish she’d put on his feet way back when. As my memory drifted back to that time, I found myself desperately wishing to go back to then, back to a time before all of this went to shit. But then, I’d just have to go through the hurt all over again.

“Wait, is that… is that dentist-chair guy?” I paused my movements for a second, brutally reminded of how Luther, Diego and I had found him.

“Elliott,” I reminded her. “Your Swedish buddies got him.”

“Oh, shit,” Lila gagged as she dared to pull back the cloth covering him for a moment. “I liked that shit-muppet.” I watched, perplexed, as she removed a flask from her back pocket and unscrewed the top. Did she really just carry that around? “Well, here’s to Elliott, I guess. Um… I’ll miss his crazy theories… and I’ll miss sharing his bed with you.”

That caught me off guard, causing me to stumble in my movements slightly. Slowly, I dared to look up at her as she took a swig of the drink within, then offered me some. Half of me screamed not to take it, and warned it was a trap, but a sentimental and broken part of me took over, and I decided to accept her offering.

The liquid burned slightly as it went down, but I didn’t mind. It was what came after that was far worse. Right as I bent down to start digging again, my limbs turned to jelly, and the whole world started to swing and spin. I tried to reach out and grab onto something, but there was nothing there for me to take. Right before I fell down, I watched Lila spit out the drink she pretended to swallow, then everything went completely black.


	29. A Room Full of Exes

Throbbing, bouncing, beating pain surged through me as I started to wake up, expecting to find myself laying down. I’d completely forgotten what happened before I blacked out, believing for a moment that I’d gone to bed, until I opened my eyes and found myself in a completely unfamiliar room—not to mention I was sat in some chair. Large, towering, full bookshelves lined all of the walls, complete with one of those rolling ladders I remembered riding when I was a little kid. In front of me was a grandiose fireplace, decorated with gold and white, only further cementing I was somewhere I likely shouldn’t have been. It took me a second to focus, but when I did, hatred started to overtake my confusion. Sat right in front of me was a woman, sat completely tall and proper; not a single strand of her white hair was out of place, and there wasn’t a wrinkle or dust particle on her ornate, purple uniform. Lila was sat right beside me, staring at the woman behind the desk intently.

“Mina Hargreeves… meet my mother.” My eyes went wide as I shifted to stare at the girl on my left. Five had said she was part of the Commission, but he never mentioned she was the daughter of the very bane of his existence. At least, I assumed this was her. The description certainly fit. “Mother, this is Mina… my girlfriend.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I questioned, not willing to fall right back into that title.

Though I wanted to focus my anger on Lila, I couldn’t draw myself away from the woman in front of me. Here she was, sat right within arm’s reach… The Handler. The woman who had caused my family, specifically my own blood, so much trouble. She, on the other hand, appeared to want nothing to do with me, despite the fact I remember Five mentioning she’d offered for me to work for them with him at some point. Instead, she leaned forward against her desk and glared at the woman that apparently was her daughter.

“Are you kidding me?” she grunted, annoyed.

“You said I could hire my own team,” Lila attempted to reason. Her own team for what, exactly?

“Yes, but I didn’t mean her, for God’s sake.” I held my angry gaze as the Handler momentarily looked to me. “If you don’t see the problem with hiring you-know-who’s sister—and his _twin_ sister, at that—then you’re not ready for that badge.”

Only now did I notice the gold badge pinned to Lila’s sweater that read ‘Head of Security’. That was new.

In the vain of looking around, I glanced down to my watch, and noticed I was past the time we had to leave. For a moment, I panicked, but I quickly remembered this place was filled with briefcases that I could use to take me back to before time had run out, and all this would be solved. I just had to figure out how to get to them…

“I’m sorry, but I really need to get going,” I sighed.

“Shut up!” The power behind their voices caused me to flinch.

“I can’t do this job if you don’t trust my instincts,” Lila argued.

“Sweetheart, your vagina needs glasses. She is not worth it.” Lila’s eyes widened in horror as her mother casually sat back in her chair. I didn’t really know what to do with that information, instead just allowing my brain to go blank for a moment.

“Mum! Oh, my God. This may shock you, but not everyone here likes you.” The Handler’s expression shifted to blind defiance.

“Sounds ridiculous, but go on,” she urged. I couldn’t tell whether she was being sarcastic or not, but my instincts were pointing me closer to ‘no’.

“You need fresh blood loyal to us and not the old regime. I’ve seen Mina in the field. She is so much better trained than some of the assholes here. Why waste that when we can use it?” I rolled my eyes, completely unwilling to go with this plan. “She’ll be my personal responsibility.”

Something in the Handler’s expression changed, and she leaned forward, picking up the rotary phone on her desk and dialing some number. She whispered something into the receiver that I couldn’t quite hear, and once the deed was done, she opened a metal tin to reveal a neat line of cigarettes, removing one and lighting it with no regard for anyone else in the room.

“You know, your brother Five and I… we have quite… a colorful history.” The tone of her voice told me everything I needed to know about that statement. Disgusted, I gagged a little, trying to put that thought as far from my mind as it could go. Why the hell did she think I needed that information? “I highly doubt your any less of a loose cannon than he is, but I’m willing to look past all that if you really want a job with us.”

I couldn’t help but let out a bitter fit of laughter, staring her dead in the eyes as it died down and I started to speak.

“Are you out of your mind?” I spat. “You took advantage of my lonely and vulnerable brother and turned him into a killer, you’ve sent multiple assassins after not only him, but my entire family, and now I know about…” I gestured to her, unwilling to address anything head-on. “…whatever that was. Needless to say, you’ve terrorized my family, and I don’t take too kindly to that. So, give me one good reason I should join the Commission.”

A chill ran through me as the Handler smirked. Effortlessly, she reached over and picked up the phone again, dialing that same set of numbers and waiting the appropriate time before she handed it over to me and forced me to listen.

“ _Please! Why are you doing this to me?”_ a woman begged, her terror evident even over the phone. “ _I don’t understand… P-Please, I haven’t done anything wro—“_

The Handler placed her finger over the receiver’s hold to hang up the call and laced her fingers together, waiting for me to make my move.

“I don’t understand.” I eyed the woman with one brow raised. “Was that supposed to mean something to me? Not to sound too much like my brother, but why am I supposed to show concern for your hostage?”

The Handler’s smile never faltered as she delivered the fatal blow.

“Because right now, I’ve got two agents with their guns trained on your biological mother… just moments before she is to give birth to you” She leaned back in her chair, as though this was just a casual activity to her. “Of course, I only told them to shoot after the first baby is born, meaning that your poor, little brother would be cut off at the source, and cease to exist completely.”

I panicked. I had no choice but to agree, and although I didn’t want her to finish that sentence, I waited until she was finished to instinctually answer.

“Fine!” I caved, my heart racing. “Fine, I’ll work for you all, just… please, don’t hurt Five, and _don’t_ shoot our mother.”

I hated the way the Handler smirked. She knew she had won, yet again, and I’d handed that to her, the exact way she expected it.

“That I can work with.” She turned her attention back to Lila. “Run her through orientation, fill out her starter paperwork. But… if she ruffles even one feather, you will kill her yourself. Understood?”

“Thanks, Mum.”

Lila was beaming with pride, as though she’d done something right. There was nothing right about this, but I’d do what I had to in order to keep my brother safe. That wasn’t negotiable.

“All right, well, let’s get going. It’s a big place, and you’ve got an orientation to get to.” Unwillingly, I stood up from my chair and followed Lila out the door, eyeing the Handler with contempt one last time before I left the room.

No way in hell was I going to let her win this.

“Now, like I said, it’s a really big place. Do not get lost.” I didn’t bother to take note of anything she was showing me, not letting myself believe that I would be here for long. There had to be some way to slip out and not put Five, or any of my other siblings, at risk.

“Or what? You’ll kill me?” I taunted.

“Oh, you still mad about that, you big baby?” she shot back, not even missing a beat.

“No, I love being drugged and kidnapped and having my twin brother’s entire existence threatened.” I watched Lila’s excited expression falter for a second, and strangely, I felt a little bad. 

“Okay, well, let’s make sure you’re the best agent possible, and no one has to worry about who kills who, okay?”

I couldn’t do this. The closer we got to the bottom of the stairs, the more real this all got, and Lila calling me an agent, which I knew was code for assassin, was the final straw. I grabbed her arm and pulled her aside, keeping us out of the view of anyone that passed by.

“Wait, Lila, I need to get out of here,” I hissed, no longer messing around and letting myself go with this.

“Relax.”

“No, I do not have time for this now.”

“We have all the time in the world.” Her efforts to calm me down did absolutely nothing of the sort.

Without waiting for me to be in a more stable mindset, she pulled away and marched down the hall to our left, filled with determination. I, on the other hand, was not willing to give up my position.

“Lila, you know me,” I tried to reason. “You know I can’t kill people for no reason. That’s not who I am, nor is it who I want to be.”

“You’re not killing them for no reason,” she immediately countered. “You’re helping to preserve the timeline.” I huffed.

“Yeah, okay, I know that’s what you people think you’re doing, but to me, it’s just plain murder. I’m not willing to do that just because you and your mother say so. If I’m forced to stay here, there must be something else I can do.” Something different fell over Lila’s face as we stopped in front of a room—it was almost a desperate sort of look.

“Mina, please,” she begged, keeping her voice low. “I need you to do this, and you need to do this for Five. I know I haven’t been great, and I don’t expect you to still love me, but am I allowed to call in one last favor?”

Were it not for Five’s life being on the line, I likely wouldn’t have agreed. There was something else in there, something causing conflict, but I wasn’t willing to give it the time of day.

“Fine, Lila. Jesus.”

She smiled at me, then grabbed my arm and pulled me into the room with a certain excitement. The blue walls were covered in posters, ranging from kill exercises to the chain-of-command in the Commission. A few of the desks were filled with people much more eager than I was, and a woman stood leaning against a larger desk, her attention trained to the door in case anyone else came in.

“Dropping off a new recruit,” Lila announced, causing her to make our presence known.

“Welcome to orientation,” the woman greeted, handing me a small folder filled with different sheets of paper, all coated in information. “Open your welcome package and grab a seat. All questions will be answered at the end of the film.” I turned back to Lila, still feeling that sense of urgency.

“How long is this?”

“Sit your ass down,” the woman leading orientation barked. Reluctantly, I slid into a desk on my right and decided to humor all this for a while.

“I’m really sorry about all this Mina, but hopefully, you’ll adjust after a while.”

Before she turned to leave, she leaned down and pressed her lips against mine. Against my better judgement, I leaned into it, and as she walked out of the room, I had to fight down a stupid little smile attempting to form on my face. What the hell was happening to me?

Once all light had been shut out of the room, a projector in the back whirred to life, and the orientation video began to play. An animated briefcase smiled widely and waved at all of us, making me feel as though I was being patronized. Did they realize most of us in here look to be in our mid-twenties or early thirties?

_“Oh, hi there! I’m Mr. Briefcase. If you’re watching this presentation, that means you’ve made the best decision of the rest of your life. You’ve decided to join the Commission.”_ I tried to hide my scoff, unsure of who exactly would buy that bullshit. _“Over the next 90 minutes, I’m gonna do my best to show you around this old place. You and I are gonna have some fun together.”_

I sighed, glancing momentarily over at the clock. I still had to sit through 89 more minutes of this shit.

_“Here at the Commission, you’ll find a wide array of exciting career opportunities just waiting to be discovered. Which department will be right for you? Analyst: keeping us informed. Operations: keeping us safe. Hi-yah! Infinite Switch Board Operator: the key to everything we do here. In these rooms, we monitor the entire timeline and report and anomalies we see along the way, keeping the correct timeline at all times.”_

My interest was officially piqued. The _entire_ timeline? That meant I could see any point in time that I wanted. Either my family had left me, and I needed to find a way to get back to 2019, or they stayed here, and now we had to find a way to stop the doomsday. Both of those options required foresight that board could provide. I just had to find one of the rooms and get there without anyone noticing me.

Hopeful, I glanced over at the woman monitoring our orientation, finding her fast asleep and snoring; that at least took the first obstacle down. Without paying much mind to the rest of the people in here, I slid out from behind my desk and crouched low, keeping from disturbing them as I snuck out of the room successfully.


	30. Always the Bomb

Attempting to keep a low-profile, I tried my best to appear as though I knew exactly where I was going, keeping my gaze straight ahead and only occasionally glancing at the labels on the doors.

Finally, I came to a shiny, wooden door, marked by a maroon plate with the words ‘Infinite Switchboard 2589’ carved into it. I glanced over my shoulders one last time, then quickly opened the door and stepped inside, shutting it behind me as quietly as possible.

Sets of screens were blackened, fast asleep while they waited for someone to come and light them up. Panels of plugs and cables that matched the holes sat underneath the screens to my right and left, clearly the key to starting this whole thing up. Trouble was, I had absolutely no clue how to do that. I could see blue and red lights shooting up clear tubes through a window in front of me, but those wouldn’t do any good if nothing was plugged in. I’d have to at least give this a shot. Maybe it didn’t matter what was plugged in where, as long as I got the right ones hooked up.

The chair I slid into rolled away slightly, and once I pulled myself back, I was no more reassured about making progress. Nothing here made sense. It all looked like a bunch of gibberish—completely useless without the right knowledge. I began to just plug things in randomly, but clearly, I got it wrong. Instead of any of the screens coming to life, a jolt of electricity was sent right into my fingers, causing me to flinch and jump back.

“Jesus!” I cried, shaking the hand in an attempt to get the pain to go away. “Wow, I am so sorry to everyone I’ve ever done that to.”

Right as I was recovering from the shock, a hand laid itself onto my shoulder, causing me to shoot up and clamp one hand tightly around the assailant’s throat, using the other to bring up a little charge—one powerful enough to stun someone. The person’s eyes immediately went wide, and they stared at me with panic, like they hadn’t expected me to fight back.

“Oh!” he cried. “Please don’t hurt me.” Despite his pleas, I refused to relent my grip. He was donned in a blue suit, meaning he worked for these people, and I couldn’t just believe he would let things go without a threat.

“Who the hell are you?” I demanded, my voice falling into a low growl.

“I’m Herb,” he introduced, his voice still trembling. “I’m an analyst.”

“I’m Mina,” I shot back. “I have electricity.”

“Yes, I can see. It’s very bright.” Realizing this guy couldn’t be much of a threat, given he wasn’t trying to wrench himself from my grasp, I decided to let him go. He gasped loudly, attempting to get his breath back, clawing at his chest.

“Breathe,” I instructed. It took him a couple more minutes, but he finally pulled himself together, then broke out into a big smile.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Miss Hargreeves,” he gushed. I raised an eyebrow, momentarily forgetting my brother and ex-girlfriend both had associations here.

“You know me?” I eyed him warily, ready to strike again if necessary.

“Everybody knows you. You’re Number Five’s sister. You’re Number Four! You’re a legend.” I shook my head, unwilling to believe it. I really hadn’t done anything that important to warrant some sort of legendary status. “Miss Hargreeves, you can’t be here.”

That didn’t mean I couldn’t use the title to my advantage.

Maybe this was a bit conniving for me, but I was going to do what I had to in order to get back to my family. I flashed Herb an innocent smile, hoping to guilt him into helping me.

“Herb, is that any way to talk to a legend?” I fluttered my eyelashes a bit, trying to play this up the best I could. Thankfully, it seemed to be working as he pursed his lips together and shook his head. “You know how to work this thing?” Herb nodded confidently.

“I’m certified to operate the ISB, yes.” Perfect.

“Good. I need you to help me figure something out. There’s a doomsday that’s supposed to happen in Dallas on November 25, 1963. Some event, somewhere within ten days before that point, there’s an event that triggers the nuclear war that causes it. Do you know where that is?” Once again, his strong nod instilled me with hope.

“Sure, yes! That’s November 22, 1963.”

I resisted the urge to let out a long sigh. Of _course_ it was that day. Diego would rub it in my face if he found out.

“Great. I need you to show me that day.” Immediately, Herb’s confidence and excitement turned to panic.

“Unauthorized use of the Infinite Switch Board is a clear violation of company protocol 67D—“

“Don’t be such a tight-ass.” I paused for a moment, mulling the words I’d just spoken back over in my head. “Wow, I _really_ sounded like Diego there.” I sat there in my own thoughts for a few moments, then snapped right back out of it, urgent to get back on track.

“You don’t understand,” he snapped. “There’s been a coup d’etat.” My eyes widened at the information Herb had revealed. I didn’t think it was possible for anyone in the Commission to think differently. For a whole uprising to happen within…

“What?” I hissed. “How? Why?”

“The Handler has taken over the Commission. The whole place has gone to heck in a handbasket, and people are disappearing.” I snickered at his reluctance to swear. Disappearances, however, were not as funny. “They would kill us both if they caught us in here.”

“Well, you better get started before they come get us,” I urged. Herb stopped to consider things for a moment, still teetering on the fence, before he finally gave in and fell on my side.

“One quick look, then you gotta go.”

I tried my best to contain my jittering excitement as Herb made his way over to the plugs. He scoffed and undid the progress I had made, correcting it so that the screens lit up with actual footage of historical events, rather than green and red error messages. As Herb made his way back over to me and started to roll the footage to the right time, my heartbeat grew louder and faster, pounding right against my ear drums. What did I think we would find? Some sort of monster? The plain-old assassination? Did it have something to do with us… again?

“Dallas. November 22, 1963.”

I watched the same, old footage burned into history’s mind. Jackie and her husband stepped off the plane, waving and smiling to the crowd awaiting them, before it cut to the motorcade, riding contently through the streets of the city of Dallas, completely unaware of what was incoming. The crowds on the sidewalks cheered and waved their flags high in the air, praising the president. Finally, the shot cut to that dreaded street, where Kennedy would take his last few breaths. I watched, unable to speak, as the caravan rolled peacefully down the street. My eyes were glued dutifully to the screen, when suddenly, there was a loud bang, and I noticed something strange in the background. Following the loud sound, the corner of the building had crumbled, leaving rubble and clouds of dust in its wake. And because of that, the motorcade fled in panic, and the president survived the gunshot

That wasn’t supposed to happen…

“What the hell is that?” I asked, pointing right at the large, tan building in the background.

“The FBI building,” Herb informed me, staring at me quizzically.

“Yeah, but why the hell did it just blow up?” I pressed.

“That’s not supposed to happen?” It was pretty clear Herb wasn’t sure what was actually supposed to happen.

“No, that’s not sup—and now, he’s driving away. They didn’t kill him. Holy shit.”

“That’s _no bueno_.” Pieces from earlier started to click for me, and one very crucial details suddenly stuck out.

“It wasn’t a gunshot, it was an explosion we heard on the Frankel footage.”

I watched, wide-eyed and horrified, as a nuclear war began to unfold in front of my eyes. Kenndy’s accusations fired at Russia set them off, caused them to launch their arsenal in our direction, we fought back, and the next thing I knew, the entire world was shooting nukes at each other, causing the footage to cut off suddenly and go black.

Doomsday was still on, and I had the answers to stopping it right here in front of me.

“That’s what Hazel was trying to tell us,” I whispered, still trying to find my voice following that shock.

“Hazel?” Rather than humoring Herb, I decided to move on, not wanting to waste any more time.

“I mean, this is what causes doomsday. Do you have another angle on the FBI building?” With a proud smile on his face, Herb reached forward and turned a dial, simultaneously rewinding and zooming in the footage.

“Watch this.” With a couple more turns of another dial and some flips of a switch, the images came to a halt before moving in the right direction.

Everything around me slowed down as I watched the building’s edge crumble, and through the dust and panic, a blue glow shot through. Dragged along with it was none other than Vanya, her skin completely pallid and eyes glowing a bright blue, her hands and fingertips hot white. Extending out her arms, she summoned a blue aura around her, and her regular old clothes turned to the pristine, white suit we’d seen her in once before. But never, in my experience, had I seen her fly!

Reeling and mentally shut down, I collapsed into the chair behind me, unwilling to believe it at first. We’d done everything we could with Vanya this time around, but in the end, she still set off the end of the world. Where had we gone wrong?

Where had I gone wrong?

For a moment, my mind played back the words Five had spoken in 2019, when we’d just barely managed to solve the problem in time.

_“Vanya is the bomb.”_

“Vanya,” I muttered, trying to get my head around everything. “Vanya _is_ the bomb. She will always be the bomb.”

Now that I knew, maybe there was a chance I could fix this. I knew where she was now, but no way could I do this on my own. I just had to hope my family hadn’t left me behind…

“I have to get back to Dallas,” I asserted, sitting up straighter. “Now.”

I expected Herb to stutter and protest, tell me that it was against company protocol. I’d already heard quite a bit about interfering with what the Commission believed was meant to happen, but at this point, I didn’t give a shit. Let them catch me and try to kill me, but I was going to get the information back to my family, one way or another.

“We need _la resistance._ ”

I blinked at Herb, incredulous. He was part of this _coup d’etat?_ From the way he talked about it, he made it sound like he condemned it. Not to mention, he didn’t really seem like the type to go and break the rules, especially after all his talk about how he couldn’t use the ISB.

“Follow me.”

Bringing myself out my confusion, I got up from the chair and snuck out with Herb, keeping an eye out for anyone that might try to stop us or follow wherever the hell we were going. A few women and men, dressed in suits identical to Herb’s, waved at or greeted him, and a couple cast me a curious look, but the two of us kept moving before anyone could ask any sort of questions. He guided me up the stairs and down toward the end of the hall, then took one last glance around, and hastily ushered me inside.

A small group of Commission employees were gathered around a table, staring at something and discussing it as quietly as possible. Upon hearing the door open, their conversation immediately died out, and they all cast their eyes in our direction. I suddenly felt scrutinized, like they were studying every detail of me—the unknown factor.

“I know we don’t look like much, but we’re resourceful.” Herb was so optimistic, I couldn’t help but believe in this team, at least enough to get me home.

“Don’t mess with case management,” a tall woman in front of me piped up, bouncing a little on her toes. Despite the threatening nature of her words, she sounded elated to be speaking them.

“Stand down, Dot,” Herb warned, keeping her from getting too fired up.

As I looked over the group I’d been presented with, my eyes caught onto a black, shiny object set in the middle of the table, one I knew pretty well. Sure, I hadn’t actually held an official one in my hands, but I felt like I had at least enough experience.

That briefcase was my ticket back home.

Herb must have caught me staring, because he made his way over to the briefcase and started to turn the dials on top, setting the date.

“Since you’ve never used one before, I’ll come back with you, just to make sure nothing goes wrong,” he offered. “But, once you’re there, I’ll be out of your hair.” I nodded, acknowledging him. “Is there anywhere in particular you’re thinking of?”

I ran through my options for a moment. Of course, there was always the alleyway, but if my siblings hadn’t gone home, they might’ve dispersed. Klaus’ mansion would probably be a bust, and I _really_ didn’t want to have to deal with his cult. Even though I knew where Vanya was, there was no way I could take her on alone if she was starting to get charged up.

I only had one option left, and it wasn’t a sure thing—not to mention I didn’t know where it was—but it was my best bet.

“You know a lot about my family, right?” I ran a hand through my hair, trying to think through this plan.

“Of course. The Commission was required to keep tabs on all of Number Five’s family, especially when you all time traveled.” That worked for me.

“That means you know where my sister Allison lives, right?” Herb nodded. “Perfect. Take me there.”

“You got it.”

He adjusted a few more dials on the top, then picked up the briefcase, offered a final wave to his cohorts, and grabbed onto my arm, making sure I’d get dragged along with him. Though it went against my nature, I kept my eyes wide open, watching as the world around me bent apart, taking on an unnatural curve, before there was a blue flash of light, and I was greeted with the sight of the inside of Allison’s home. She screamed, frightened, and dropped the rug she and the man I presumed to be her husband were holding. Klaus was lounging on the couch, a couple strange stains on his shirt, and Diego stood off in the foyer, holding the door open.

Once they calmed down, their eyes all turned to me, and their eyes widened. Klaus immediately shot up from his seated position and rushed over, pulling me into a bone-crushing hug.

“Mina!” he cried. “What happened to you?” I pushed Klaus away slightly and gestured toward Herb. We really didn’t have much time.

“Long story. We all gotta go.” I pushed past Klaus and rushed over to Diego, bringing him away from the door to make sure I wouldn’t have to shout.

“Mina, _jesus_!” Allison shouted, flailing her arms at me.

“Wow,” Herb chuckled, scanning his eyes over the scene in front of him. “Number Two, Three, Four, _and_ Six. We almost have an Umbrella straight flush here.”

“Ray, this is my sister, Mina,” Allison introduced, exasperated.

I turned my attention to the kind-eyed man across from her and stepped forward, reaching out to shake Ray’s hand. He simply stared at me for a moment, still trying to get everything through his head, before he finally accepted the handshake.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” I greeted. “Sorry to crash in here like this.”

“Hey, who’s this guy?” Klaus asked, pointing an accusatory finger right at Herb.

“Herb. He worked with Five at the Commission.”

“The Commission?” I looked over my siblings, slightly surprised. I guess Five hadn’t told them about all of this, at least not as in-depth.

“We monitor and maintain the space-time continuum.”

“Okay.” Diego didn’t sound like he really believed me.

“No, really. I was just there. Not to mention, Five told me about it after he came back from the future.” I directed my attention to Allison, attempting to move things along. “Okay, I got a look at the timeline. I know what causes doomsday. It’s Vanya.” Allison’s confused, slightly miffed expression fell into one of fear and sadness.

“Wait, what?”

“How?”

“Gonna blow up the federal building at Dealy Plaza,” I sighed, “just as the president’s passing through in less than one hour. We’ve gotta find her and stop her now.”

“Wait, Vanya kills the president?” I rolled my eyes, growing impatient.

“No, no, no. See, the explosion causes the motorcade to drive off. Kennedy lives. Everyone thinks Russia’s behind it, including the president. He strikes back, they strike back. Before you know it, it’s raining nukes.”

I hadn’t let myself have the time to consider the consequences of just dropping that information with the current crowd, until I turned to see Ray with his eyes wide, slowly lowering toward the ground. Allison, Diego, Klaus and I were used to this sort of thing, but for Ray, nuclear war wasn’t something to take lightly. Not that it was to be brushed off in any other time, but the scare of impending war was far more intense in the 1960s, meaning a genuine fear was likely being realized for him.

“Ray?” Allison made her way over to her husband and took his hand. “Ray, baby? Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay,” he snapped. “First, of all, this son of a bitch beams into our living room with another one of your sister, and he’s talking about stopping your other sister from blowing up some buildings, and I got a dead man wrapped up in my best rug, babe.”

Only now did I notice the blood staining the rolled-up rug Allison and Ray had been holding when Herb and I showed up. From the top end of it, I noticed a distinct tuft of white hair falling out of the top. On the bright side, that was a Swede down.

“Okay, okay, okay. Can… can we… Raymond. Ray. Ray.” Allison pulled her husband into the kitchen, allowing them to have a private talk amongst the two of them.

“We can have that shampooed,” Herb offered. “We also do body removal services.”

“Lovely,” I deadpanned. While Allison caught up with Ray, I turned back to my brothers, eager to hear about the siblings that weren’t here.

“Have you seen Luther and Five?” Diego and Klaus exchanged a wary glance, causing my stomach to turn. “What? What happened?” Nothing eased when Klaus set a hand on my shoulder.

“Just remember, 99% of the time, you’re Five’s favorite.”

My shoulders drooped as the realization hit me. I hadn’t been there. 

Before I had too much time to mope, Allison came back to us, and without speaking a word to each other, we headed out the door and hopped into the car Diego and I had been driving. Of course, we all knew where the FBI building was, so there wasn’t any need for confusion or navigation. I looked up at the windows, horrified as I noticed a slight glow already emanating from nearly the top floor. Unwilling to waste any more time, I rushed into the building, using the little charge I had built up to knock out the guards in front, leaving us a clear path to the elevator. My leg wouldn’t stop bouncing as Klaus hit the right button and the elevator began to move.

“I hope we find Vanya in time,” I heard Allison whisper. Any words of reassurance I had left got caught in my throat.

We’d gotten about halfway up, when all of a sudden, the lights began to flash, and the elevator jarred, nearly throwing me off my feet. I could’ve doubted this had anything to do with Vanya growing stronger, until the doors finally opened, and we were immediately hit with blinding lights and a loud, ear-piercing note, threatening to shatter my skull and melt my eyes. I clamped my hand down over my ears, reducing the buzzing in my brain slightly, but I couldn’t stay like that forever. I had to get to Vanya.

Despite the heavy force pushing against us, the four of us managed to push our way out of the elevator, only to collapse onto the floor. The agents that tried before us were littered across the floor and stuck to the ceiling, blood running from their empty eye sockets and the holes in their ears.

The strength of the energy trying to expel us from the building grew stronger by the second. Someone had to do _something_ , and if none of my other siblings were going to step up, I’d have to be the one.

“Who are we trying to save Vanya from?” Klaus gasped out.

“The FBI!” Diego, Allison, and I groaned at the same time, barely able to hear ourselves or each other.

“But if they’re all sucking ceiling right now, why hasn’t she stopped?”

“I don’t know!” I shouted. “But if one of us can get to her, we might be able to stop this! Vanya’s in the room at the end of the hall.”

“How do you propose we get to her?” Diego challenged.

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” I admitted.

“You can count me out.” My other two siblings and I turned to Klaus, severely annoyed.

“Klaus!”

“What?” he whined. “You guys should save her. You’re great at the hero shit.”

“Oh, Klaus!” Allison reached over to hit her brother, only stopped by me pushing back on her. We couldn’t turn on each other now.

“Listen, listen. Vanya would understand ‘cause she has realistic expectations of what I am. And what I am, is sexy trash!”

“You’re a big pussy, that’s what you are,” Diego barked.

“Guys, now is _not_ the time,” Allison snapped, saving me from yelling at the two of them.

“Why? Because I don’t want to die? Who does? And martyrs aren’t around to enjoy the victory party ‘cause they’re dead!”

I couldn’t keep listening this. Klaus’ fear of death was perfectly justified, but I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. Nuclear war was at stake here, and if I could get to Vanya—even if it cost me my life—I could end this and save everyone else.

To me, the benefit to the rest of humanity greatly outweighed my own life.

“Tell Five I’m sorry.”

Before any of my other siblings could protest, I pushed myself up and grabbed onto the desk we’d been hiding behind, using it to keep myself steady. Every muscle in my body begged me to stop and release my grip, but I refused to give in. With great resistance, I managed to get my hands onto the wall, and used that to crawl along. I’d made pretty substantial progress, but the ringing noises were too loud, and though I tried my best, my fingers involuntarily slipped away, and I collapsed onto the ground, the images around me screaming and flashing with a fiery flair before cutting to black.


	31. Exogenesis (Or, Movement of Life Somewhere Else)

**_The names of the sections in this chapter correspond to something_ ** **VERY _specific. I literally took the names from their names. Wondering if any of you know what it is…_**

**_Hints: they’re from an album. All 3 songs are in a row. They are NOT the only titles of the pieces._ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -_ **

_The City, 2007_

**_Overture_ **

The emptiness around me buried its way into my skin, deep into my mind as it whispered threats and echoed memories of how life once was. The armoire doors kept the reminders behind them, the neatly-made bed lacking even a single wrinkle. Everything had this brand-new sheen to it, as though it had never been touched, the toys never played with, the books not once cracked open and scanned over vigorously. The loneliness of it all enshrouded me, attempting to use forceful hands to pull me in and get me to stay forever. I didn’t dare try the other room downstairs, the wounds somehow still fresh. It had been five years since that room had last been used, and now it, too, was used as nothing more than a museum of a life that had once been. Three rooms now stood useless in this home, never sealed off, but haunting enough to discourage most visitors.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to ignore the siren’s song of the tableau right across from what would soon become my own.

It was only when the bitter sting buried itself so deep into me that I thought of nothing else that I made the decision to turn around and resume my own activities. My dresser drawers and closet stood wide open, nearly emptied of their contents. They played a sad, hollow song, lacking what gave them life, as they creaked with the shifting that comes with any old house. It was trying to get me to stop for a moment and reconsider, but I was unwilling. Soon, I would have nothing left here, and I knew that. Other opportunities were opening for me in other places, far enough away to keep me from having to run into someone who would just ask why.

The only difficulty came from making the announcement to the head of the household. These days, I wasn’t even sure he would notice I was in the room, but I still felt it a common curtesy to assure him the fourth empty room wasn’t the result of a kidnapping or disappearance. It was all in the name of attempting to move on.

“Hey, Mina.”

I jumped as Klaus slammed his hands against my doorway, peering his head in and disrupting my thought process. Still, as I turned around to look at him, I couldn’t be angry.

“Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I flashed him a smile, assuring everything was good between us. “The old man’s unoccupied, so if you want to break the news, now’s your chance.”

The moment the possibility of my declaration became reality, I began to tremble. Could I really do this? Could I stare down the demon and say those four fateful words?

_“Dad, I’m leaving tomorrow.”_

He let Diego go without much of a fight, but then again, Diego wasn’t prone to what I was. I knew there was something wrong with me, understood that I was hurting myself and putting myself at risk, but I couldn’t stop. And that was the worst part of it all. I tricked myself into believing that if I left, I would start to get better.

But, with no one left to talk to, would that really be possible?

Noticing my distress, which I’d never been very good at hiding in the first place, Klaus made his way over and pulled me into a tight hug, trying to remind me that everything would work out in the end. Like it or not, there really was nothing Dad could do to stop me. He could protest and hurl his insults and lack of belief in me right into my face, but at the end of the day, he wouldn’t leave that office to keep me from going out the door. Not to mention, I was stronger than him, even now.

“I’m gonna miss you,” Klaus whispered into the top of my head. I pushed away and poked his arm.

“Stop that! No more talk about me leaving until tomorrow morning, okay?” Though he appeared reluctant, Klaus still nodded. “Let’s just try to have a good time and be as happy as we can until then. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

I could feel myself swaying as I took careful steps down a floor and to the right. The thought of facing my final trial turned my stomach over, flipping and throwing it in whatever what my mind pleased, but I just kept telling myself I had to do it… I had to do it… I had to do it…

_Knock, knock, knock._

There was silence on the other end for a while, and I began to fear Dad already knew and was just refusing to speak to me. Somehow, he always seemed to know what was going on with all of us, so it was entirely possible he’d already found out. I feared the consequences of that far more than if he was given little time to process.

“You may enter,” his voice called from the other side of the door.

Following a shaky, deep breath, I slid open the oaken door and stepped into the frigid office, adorned with ceiling-high shelves of books and oddities I wasn’t sure it was possible to acquire without shady tactics. Dad refused to lift his eyes from whatever notes or letters he was writing, but I just assumed he was acknowledging my presence by letting me in, and began to speak.

“Dad, I know this is kind of out of nowhere, and I’m not giving you a lot of time to process, but I have to get this out now, otherwise I’m never going to, and then I’m never going through with this and I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”

I was stalling, and he knew it.

“Out with it, Number Four,” he sighed, annoyed.

_Time to climb the mountain’s peak, Mina._

“I’m moving out tomorrow.” 

It hadn’t come out the way I’d planned it, but nonetheless, the message was delivered. It took Dad a couple of seconds to register what I’d said, but when he did, he actually dropped what he was doing and took the time to stare at me with an icy glare.

I swallowed, my heart begging to be set free from my chest.

“Do you honestly think you’re ready for that?” he snapped, chuckling to himself as he spoke. “You believe you can go out there in the world and function like an adult, when you still have the temper and problem management of a child?”

“I can’t stay here, Dad.” I refused to cry, though his words left me awfully close to doing just that. “It’s… it’s just too hard, and I feel like, if I get out of here and away from you, I can start to get better.”

He knew I was lying, but he didn’t press on that much further.

“Away from me?”

I gave myself a second, preparing for what I was about to throw out into the world. Whatever would come of it, it needed to be said.

“I can’t forgive you for everything you’ve done and said, Dad. I can’t. And as long as you’re going to continue talking to me like this—like everything that’s happened is my fault—then I don’t think it’s in my best interest to stay here.” Dad opened his mouth to fight back, but I cut him off. “I have an audition with the New York City ballet this weekend. They’ve offered to help cover the rent on an apartment near the studio until I can pay for it myself. They really want me there.” Once again, I didn’t allow him to speak. “What’s done is done. I leave tomorrow afternoon.”

It was a risky move not to stay in the room, considering I’d still have to face Dad at dinner and breakfast tomorrow morning, but for now, I could face what I’d done and be happy about what I’d said.

**_Cross-Pollination_ **

The familiar chime of the dinner bell released its panic-inducing chimes through the empty halls. Strength that kept me from collapsing decided that now was a good time to completely leave my body, meaning I’d have to face all of this with my own wits and grace—something I didn’t really have. Part of me wanted to just skip out on this all together, but I feared the consequences of not being present more than anything else. Dad would make a big scene out of all this, try to guilt me into staying, and I knew it, but I couldn’t put it off.

Face the demon down, defeat him once and for all, get the hell out of the dungeon. It sounded a hell of a lot simpler than it was.

A toxic cloud descended upon the long table as each of my siblings took our placed behind our chairs, waiting for Dad to finally make it down and allow us to sit. Something was choking all of us—the air of foreboding, perhaps. Maybe it was just me, and I was projecting onto the rest of my siblings. Klaus’ grip on my arm did nothing to lessen the weight trying to push me through the floor.

With each footstep inching closer, I felt bile crawling further and further up my throat. The moment he entered the room, he locked eyes with me, refusing to relent even as we took a seat and began to eat our dinner. I found myself picking at pieces and only eating little bits of each, blaming the sudden intimidation laid down on me. The voice of _Herr Carloson_ discussing how to survive if one is ever placed in danger certainly didn’t help. Claws dug themselves, grounding me into my seat and forcing me to look Dad in the eyes, unwilling to allow me to look away for even a moment. 

It took quite a while, but eventually, Allison noticed something strange going opposite her at the table. Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed her darting her gaze back and forth between Dad and I, attempting to figure out what the hell was going on. It was like a game of who could intimidate who first, only I never signed up to play. I was just pulled out of the stands and forced into it.

“What’s going on?” Allison finally asked, breaking the golden rule of dinner. The fact that we were all adults and still had to adhere to Dad’s rules felt ridiculous.

Dad took the time to set down his silverware and blot his lips with his napkin, playing the game to the best of his ability.

“Number Four has decided she is mature enough to leave these premises,” he stated with a scoff, trying to sway our other siblings to his side. Allison stared at me in disbelief while Vanya and Klaus feigned shock, already completely aware I’d made this decision. I heard Luther drop his silverware against his plate, unable to fathom any other response.

“What?” Allison gasped. “You’re going?”

“Oh, like you care,” I snapped. I could feel my temper starting to shake itself up, but if I was going down, I’d go swinging.

“Hey, come on, Mina,” Luther interrupted. “That’s harsh.”

“Don’t baby me, Luther.” I started to rise from my seat, and I could see Klaus move my dishes out from under me. “You’re not my parent, you’re not my leader anymore.”

“If a mission comes up, we’ll be without your aid,” Dad stated bluntly. “Do you want to leave your siblings without help?”

I wouldn’t give into the guilt tripping… I wouldn’t give in… I wouldn’t give in…

“What missions?” I shouted. “There’s been nothing for two years! Face it, Dad, you’re trapped in the past. You think there’s going to be something, but guess what. The Umbrella Academy is dead, and the world knows it. Anything that goes wrong, they turn to the police.”

Now Dad was on his feet, still refusing to cross over to me.

“You think you are prepared for the adult world, when any time something does not go the way you hope, you lose control like a toddler and start screaming until you get what you want. What about that makes you think you will survive out there?”

“I won’t know until I try!” I persisted, stubborn as a rock.

“Mina, please, just—“ I swatted Klaus away.

“Do you _honestly_ believe there’s any benefit in me staying here?” I seethed. “My flesh-and-blood brother disappeared, and at this point, I’ve accepted he’s not coming back, another one of my brothers is buried in the ground, and a third walked right out. You didn’t say shit when Diego left, why the hell are you putting up such a fight with me?”

Dad fell completely silent, and for a moment, I thought I’d bested him. He kept his gaze down at his hands, like I’d actually wounded him somewhere deep.

It didn’t last long.

“If you leave, you are not welcome back, not even to visit you siblings. And _they_ are not permitted to visit you.” He looked around at each of my brothers and sisters, warning them from thinking any differently.

Had I not been so caught up in the moment, that might’ve given me pause. Though he tried his best to hide it, I knew Klaus had turned to secret substances to control the ghosts constantly screaming at him, and Vanya had fallen so quiet recently, I felt like she needed someone there for her. If I left her with Luther and Allison, she’d be overwhelmed with negative words thrown her way. Maybe I wasn’t meant to protect them, but I worried what would happen to them without some sort of mediator.

Unfortunately, that was the last thing on my mind.

“Fine.”

I pushed back the chair behind me, taking care not to knock it over this time around, and made my way back up to my room, feeling as though I’d won something.

**_Redemption_ **

Early morning chill spread itself against my coat, trying to penetrate through the layers meant to keep me safe. Plans changed after the night before, leaving me eager to get out of this god forsaken place and move on with my life. There was no point in me staying here longer than I needed to, and quite frankly, I didn’t want to have to face anyone again after last night. At some point, embarrassment and shame had crept in, infecting my mind and whispering to me that no one loved me enough to keep me here. Much like a child would with the words of their bullies, I believed the thoughts, pushing me to completely finish packing the night before. I only caught a few hours of sleep the night before, but they would do for now.

I tried my best to creep out quietly, without stirring up anyone’s attentions, but somehow, Klaus and Vanya heard me, and right as I was reaching for the door handle, they rushed up and pulled me into a tight group hug, assuring me they’d be all right. Selfish tears fought their way up, wondering what exactly I’d do without those two right by my side. I couldn’t go back on anything now; I’d sealed my fate. Last night assured that. I expected everyone to be angry with me after my final declaration. It made sense they’d never want to talk to me, and maybe, it would have made all of this easier.

I’d never really acknowledged I’d be leaving my biggest support system throughout my whole life. The view of my family had become tainted through the years of bitter muck I’d been forced to swim through, but leaving seemed to give me a new sort of clarity. Even Allison and Luther had been shoulders I’d cried on a couple of times. We’d shared childhood trauma, held each other when the pain became overwhelming, and genuinely worried about those who we saw slipping further into the corners of their mind. I made myself resent those that had chastised me, but in reality, they were just trying to look out for my best interest… most of the time.

It gave me pause, to think of leaving what I’d always known, but this would be good for me—at least, that’s what I convinced myself of. I needed to gain some independence and learn to solve my own problems. I couldn’t always run to my brothers and sisters whenever something went wrong, otherwise I’d be left completely incapable. Not to mention, I’d have to learn to make my own living eventually. The Umbrella Academy was not a permanent thing, and I’d likely gone on my last mission years ago, so there really was no point in staying here.

I hadn’t anticipated the echoing loneliness: how quiet the rooms in my new apartment would be, how everything laid out perfectly in order was somehow more haunting than the empty rooms. I couldn’t have prepared myself for the brutal world I was about to be stuck right into. I’d been naïve enough to believe things would work out the way I hoped, and I’d never have to look back again. I thought I could wonder about my siblings, maybe see where their lives had taken them when they inevitably decided to leave, but I’d never long for home again.

I wish I could take it back.


	32. Bang, Bang, Bang!

**_Season 3, babes!!! It’s happening! (Did we really ever doubt it, though?)_ **

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- --_ **

Silence.

On any other day, loud noises would have woken me up, but this time, it was the complete opposite. It was almost like the tone served as a lullaby, keeping me from rising and trying to fight through again. If it stopped, that meant Vanya must have calmed down.

Gasping, I sat up suddenly, trying my best not to fall back down.

Vanya!

Everything was calm, and nothing had exploded. Which one of us managed to get through to her? I glanced around, finding Allison, Diego, and Klaus all collapsed on the ground beside me, so it couldn’t have been any of them. Maybe she’d just run her course through it, and somehow managed to bring herself back down.

I shook my head, brushing away that thought. Once Vanya got going, it took an outside source to break her trance; while I didn’t have enough evidence of a pattern to back that thought up, one explosive incident was enough with Vanya. A lack of repeats was the goal here.

Right as I closed my eyes again, attempting to get the pounding in my skull to slow down, the pattering of the pads of feet against linoleum tile forced them back open again. Though I had almost no strength to hold my limbs up, the moment I spotted who was coming for us, I managed to at least push myself up onto my knees.

“Are you okay?” Vanya asked, bringing herself to a halt in front of her four weakened siblings strewn about on the ground. Upon hearing their sister’s voice, Klaus, Allison, and Diego stirred, managing to, at the very least, lift their heads.

“Vanya?” Allison groaned, squinting as her eyes opened to the bright sunlight.

“Physically or emotionally?” Even when he’d been beaten into a pulp, Klaus somehow managed to lighten the weight of what we’d just been through.

It took me a moment to completely process that it was Vanya standing in front of me, only a bit dazed with no visible injuries, smiling at us like she knew exactly who we were. Her brown eyes held a certain depth to them, one that only came with wisdom and memories. Was it possible…?

“You’re alive.” Diego’s eyes lit up, staring at Vanya with a soft expression, flooding with relief.

“Did we save the world, or what?” Klaus muttered, pressing a hand against the side of his head. I noticed some dried blood coming down from his ears, causing me to reach up and peel some from my own skin.

“I think so,” Allison whispered, wiping some of the red liquid dripping down from her nose.

“Building’s still here,” I reasoned, taking a glance at the in-tact walls… which just happened to be littered with blood stains from the bodies that had been thrown against it.

My heart soared as Vanya extended her hand down to me, offering help up. I still towered above her as I got back up onto my feet, but the way she stood up straight and proud made me completely forget that for a moment. She’d been imbibed with the new and reminded of the old, yet somehow, it didn’t look like any of it would weigh her down. Vanya was finally getting some of the happiness she deserved. Overwhelmed, I reached forward and pulled her into a hug, flooded with relief. This wasn’t the sister I’d known, but I hoped she’d be even better than that one.

As we pushed away, Diego glanced down at the watch Five had given him, and upon spotting the time, his eyes widened. The way he looked at all of us made it seem like he expected the rest of us to know exactly what was going on, but when I took a glance at my own, I just saw the time. We’d stopped doomsday, hopefully, and all we had to do was get back to the rest of our siblings… and then, somehow find a way home, but we could worry about that once all seven of our minds could be put together.

“Kennedy’s a few minutes away.” Without waiting for any of the rest of us, Diego shot up to his feet and made a mad dash for a window he could see the motorcade from. “I can still save him.”

Shit… I should have known…

“No, Diego, wait!” I cried, reaching out to try and grab his arm. He immediately shook my off, determined to complete this mission he’d set for himself.

Determined to stop him, I immediately moved around Vanya and followed him, catching up right as he pulled open the shade. Below us, oblivious crowds of cheering citizens and visitors waved their American flags and eagerly awaited the president’s arrival down the street they stood by.

“I still have time to stop Dad before Kennedy makes his final turn.” Diego wasn’t thinking this all the way through. If he saved Kennedy, the repercussions on the future could be disastrous.

This time, I managed to get a hold on Diego and pull him back.

“No, no, where are you going?” I hissed, attempting to get him to come down from the crazy currently fueling him.

“Look, you saw explosion. You saw the tapes, Mina. According to you, the explosion causes doomsday. We’re safe now. He doesn’t have to die.” I rolled my eyes, scoffing at the fact he’d tried to throw my warnings back in my face. Did he seriously think that logic would work on me?

“No, no, Diego—“

_Bang!_

Before I could stop him, Diego marched out the door, slamming it shut behind him, and I heard his heavy boots storming down the staircase. I could run and catch up with him, but he was stronger than me, and if I did anything to tackle him, or otherwise halt his movement, he could easily throw me off and keep going. If I built up a charge and shocked him, everyone down there would see it, and there was no reasonable way to explain a freak flash of lightning.

I sucked in as much air around me as I could, gripping the window sill until my knuckles matched the paint color. My eyes refused to remove themselves from the dark dot sprinting across the grass, heading straight for the knoll he’d been so obsessed with since he’d arrived. Somewhere deep in my mind, I registered that Klaus, Vanya, and Allison joined me, but I was too damn focused on my brother. I hated that I wanted a man to get shot, but I feared what would happen if Diego actually succeeded more. Sure, he’d feel that pride he’d been so deprived of in our childhood, but beyond that? The cosmic and timely repercussions would no doubt immediately weigh him back down.

My heart lept right up into my chest as the famous motorcade rounded the corner, sputtering closer and closer to certain doom, one way or another.

“It’s happening again,” Allison sighed, looking away from the window pane.

“Oh, Jackie,” Klaus whined.

Everything slowed as Diego came within arm’s reach of Dad. He tackled him to the ground, and the umbrella in his hands went tumbling across the knoll.

_Bang!_

Blood and brain matter went flying against the car’s leather seats and pavement, as the crowd scattered and screamed, covering children’s eyes and trying to find the nearest hiding spot.

Dad hadn’t raised the umbrella, yet the bullet was still fired. They were completely unrelated.

Horrified, I buried my face in Klaus’s shoulder, unwilling to watch the panic and fear for another moment. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what Diego was going through, but in the moment, I was just angry with him. He deliberately put the future of humanity at risk, all because he thought he could prove something to a man that could never be won over. All in the name of fueling his own, stupid ego.

Once the outside noise died down, Klaus and Allison grabbed onto me, signaling that we had to leave. Reluctantly, I agreed, and followed my three siblings down toward the car. Despite my wishes, we actually waited for Diego, who slammed his door shut and refused to utter even a sigh as I drove us back toward Elliott’s. The four of us were the only ones there, so I could only hope Five and Luther would come back from wherever they were.

The clothes I wore felt as though they were suddenly made of cinder blocks and sandpaper, clawing at my skin and begging for freedom. Exhausted, I made my way into what was once Elliott’s room and started to dig through drawers, not really feeling up to driving back home. He didn’t really have any tops I liked, so I simply settled for stripping off my sweater and wearing the bra underneath—it’s not like anyone would mind, anyways. All of us were too tired to say shit. Thankfully, when digging through Elliott’s closet, I found a pair of pants that could mostly work and a long, black jacket to throw on over top. The pants cut off around my calves, but they’d have to do for now.

_Bang!_

I jumped and threw open the door at the sound of extra footsteps, overwhelmed when I spotted my remaining two brothers coming up the stairs. Five and I connected eyes as he entered the living room, but the moment I smiled at him, he scoffed and turned away, focusing back on whatever he and Luther had been talking about. I could feel my heart suddenly weigh my entire body down as I watched him take extra efforts to completely ignore me.

However, I couldn’t blame him. I hadn’t been there before he needed me.


	33. Healing Through Screams

**_2006_ **

The cold winds nipped and slashed at our skins, laying down punishment for what was to come. Eyes remained glued to the concrete below us, refusing to face the stone, white painted reality set firmly in the snow before us. Despite our begging and insisting, dad refused to let us wear anything but our uniforms, only allowing grief to show through the black umbrellas held high over our heads, serving as the looming reminder. Even though I hadn’t been there, when I closed my eyes, my mind filled in the gaps. Blood ran down my mindscape, flooding it and slowly causing it to drown in the guilt. I knew the rest of my siblings felt the same way—we all just had different means of expressing it. Though I could feel Dad’s judgmental and disapproving gaze boring holes into my back, I refused to release my grip on Klaus’ hand, unsure of how to cope in any other way. This was a strange sort of sensation: I could deny it all I wanted, but I knew my typical response to this would have been to lock myself in my studio and keep spinning, leaping, and falling until I couldn’t feel my limbs anymore. However, this time around, I didn’t even have the energy; I woke up in the morning, and I couldn’t even muster the energy to sit up. Cinderblocks weighed down my chest, and the only way to help was when Klaus and Vanya came and dragged me out of the warm depths of my covers, forcing me to exist.

Each of us fell into place around the pristine, spotless coffin in the middle of the yard, unconsciously leaving spaces for those no longer with us. I zipped my mouth shut and allowed my breaths to come out strained from my nostrils, refusing to let my sobs infect this moment meant to respect the one we’d lost.

What the hell was I supposed to do without Ben? After Five disappeared, I’d found myself occupying my free time with my shyest brother. It turned out, he wasn’t really afraid to speak, more that he only wanted to share his thoughts with certain people. For a short while, I’d found myself replacing visits to the studio with reading on the floor with Ben. We swapped books and shared our wildest theories about the meanings behind the stories, often drifting into conversation completely unrelated to our reading material at all. During those hours, the hurt just sort of fell away, completely leaving my body in a way that none of my other siblings could manage to do; I still loved spending mornings running about with Klaus, rainy days listening to Vanya’s effortless concertos, and some extra training on occasion with Diego, but there was something irreplaceable about the time I spent with Ben.

And now, just like last time, it was ripped right out of my hands.

I wasn’t too sure about security with the rest of the family, either. Diego had already been whispering about leaving, and I’m sure this would push him over the edge. Vanya would likely follow, and I couldn’t blame her. If I was treated even half as poorly as she was, I honestly would have left much earlier. Allison’s independence would get the best of her, and soon, she’d head out those front doors and never look back. And Luther… well, it was a safe bet he’d be the last one left in this place. I didn’t want to be left with just him. Maybe it was time for me to start looking at moving on as well.

I gripped tighter onto Klaus, keeping myself bottled up as Dad ran his cold eyes over us just once, before launching into his eulogy.

“The world is full of injustice. Good people die along with the bad. The cosmic equation will never change unless evil itself is wiped from existence.” Throughout his entire delivery, Dad’s voice remained emotionless and unwavering. I’m not sure what I expected, coming from him. “Thankfully, there are powerful forces pushing back against the wicked and iniquitous, individuals who have the strength to pull together against insurmountable odds to face adversity with unblinking courage, and not hesitate to sacrifice themselves for another.”

For a moment, my heart swelled in my chest. Though Dad’s words were level, the connotation behind them made it feel like, for once, he was actually going to acknowledge the things The Umbrella Academy had done for the world. For just one second, he would compliment the work done, and acknowledge the sort of person Ben had been.

I should have known better.

“Unfortunately, none of you are such people. Despite years of training and weeks of preparation, you allowed Number Six to die on this mission.”

A single, strangled sob escaped from my lips as my hands began to ball into fists, digging my nails into Klaus’ skin. I heard him wince in pain, and although part of me felt bad, my anger was already beginning to rise, blocking me off from everyone but Dad. Grief and hatred began to swirl together, confusing themselves with each other as I leered in my father’s direction.

“It wasn’t our fault!” Allison insisted, directly defying Dad.

“Excuses?” he scoffed. “I will not hear them. The Umbrella Academy has failed one of their own, the consequences of which are dire. Hold onto this feeling, children. Let it fester in your hearts… so there is never a next time.” For a second, I thought Dad caught my gaze, but it was over before I could be sure. “Training will be cancelled today, out of respect for your brother. We resume tomorrow at 6:00 am.”

With the last word fit in, Dad, Mom, and Pogo peeled off and headed back into the house, leaving the rest of us wallowing in our bitterness. No one bothered to keep their emotions silent at this point, tears and sniffles cutting through the eerily silent snowfall. My eyes followed the trio as they walked back inside, the words stirring inside me further motivating me to follow.

“It wasn’t anybody’s fault.” I moved my gaze to Vanya, forcing myself to smile at her. She was trying her best…

“How would you know, Vanya?” Diego snapped. “You weren’t even on the mission.”

“Diego, stop it,” I hissed. “That’s not something she can control.”

Hurt, Vanya turned on her heel and rushed back inside, slamming the doors behind her. My rage suddenly focused itself on my brother, but he remained unwavering. As I tried to take a step forward, Klaus yanked on my hand to pull me back, refusing to let me do something I’d regret when my mind wasn’t part of me.

“Nice going, asshole,” Luther barked. I was genuinely surprised he stood up to Vanya.

“What? We were all thinking it.” That was a lousy defense, especially because it wasn’t true.

“Oh, so you’re thinking, Diego? That’s a first,” Allison taunted bitterly, turning away from her brother.

“Screw you!” Diego shot back.

“Hey!”

Without waiting to face his brother’s wrath, Diego started back toward the house, leaving his brother and sister to follow and chew him out. I’d completely tuned out their conversation at that point, closed into the tunnel of my own anger. Biting words of the past started to play in my head, reminding me of every occasion where Dad had tried to convince me I’d done something to cause the casualties this family suffered. He’d fallen into the pattern, making it out to seem like none of us were good enough.

I wasn’t good enough, but that didn’t mean I had to sit here and take this.

I didn’t bother to stop as Klaus called out to me. I had a new mission in my head, and I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. Thankfully, the doors had been left open by the last three, allowing me to storm right in. The house was relatively quiet, save for the clinking of ice being set into a glass in the drawing room. Immediately, I set my course for the familiar place, finding Dad standing at the bar. He glanced up momentarily, acknowledging my presence before turning back to pouring a drink into his glass.

“If there is something you need, Number Four, I suggest you take it up with your mother.”

It felt like a thousand needles were repeatedly jamming themselves into my skin, the familiar white glow emanating from the corner of my eye. I’d never seen something like this before, but I elected to ignore it, far too focused on the man in front of me.

“You don’t get to tell me Ben’s death was my fault,” I seethed. “You don’t get to tell any of us that. Luther, Diego, and I were a little busy trying to solve the actual problem at hand.”

“You three became too focused on what was in front of you to keep tabs on all sides.” Dad set the bottle back in his place and leaned against the bar, as though all of this was casual. “I see no way that is not you and your siblings’ faults.”

My arms and legs were white hot, disturbingly close to being lit aflame. Dad shifted slightly as he noticed.

“If we hadn’t done what we had, far more people would have died. And I wish it wasn’t Ben—I wouldn’t hope it was any of my siblings—but you are _not_ making me feel guilty about this. I live with enough, knowing I could have stopped Five from leaving, but I’m not even sure about that anymore.” The ball had started rolling. There was no stopping it now. “I have lost two of my brothers in the last four years, and I’m already carrying that weight. I refuse to let you put any more on.”

I’d failed to notice the slight fear that had crept its way into Dad’s expression the more electricity began to crackle. I felt so overwhelmed, it was like I couldn’t control what was happening anymore. My brain had shut itself down, buzzing with too much input and not enough release.

“Number Four—“

“It’s not my fault!”

With that, everything surged out of me, sending a wave of white lightning outwards from me. Thinking fast, Dad ducked down behind the bar, somehow managing to avoid getting shocked as it ran its course. I did, however, hear a few cries of pain from upstairs. My siblings had been listening…

The moment the energy left me, I felt my stomach lurch, and the world around me started to buzz and tremble. The lightning had finally dissipated, and once it was safe again, Dad shot up from his place and stared at me. I expected him to yell, scold me for not controlling myself, but instead, he kept himself straight and tall, and his words shook slightly.

“Number Four, I believe you are unwell,” he stated firmly. “It would be wise for you to retire to your bed for the rest of the day. Your mother will bring you meals, and whatever else you might need.”

Objectively, it was the first time I’d seen Dad act like he actually cared about what was going on. I wasn’t about to take that at face value, however.

“So you can lock me in there like a prisoner?” I laughed bitterly. “Absolutely not.” Dad still refused to get worked up.

“I think rest would do you well,” he insisted.

Before I could get in a rebuttal, the uneasy sensation brewing completely took over, causing me to collapse to the ground. I could look around and hear, but my arms and legs refused to move themselves, keeping me bound to the marble floor. The anger and resentment quickly were replaced by screaming fear. What the hell was happening to me? I tried to move, but it was like my body was no longer connected to my brain.

Unsure of how else to respond, I began to cry, begging for someone to help me. My breaths came in short, uneasy gasps, trying to surmise some sort of air that might be able to help me off the ground. Dad’s call to the rest of my siblings echoed in my brain, barely registering as words at all, and I wasn’t completely aware when Luther, Allison, and Diego came to help me onto my feet. The entire walk back to my room, Dad followed, looming like a shadow, while Allison and Diego muttered reassurances and frequently squeezed my hands. Slowly, the fog began to fade, and by the time I’d been put into my bed and Mom came to my side, I was completely aware again. Mom checked over me a bit, taking my pulse and listening to my breathing before turning to Dad and making her declaration.

“She’s suffered a mild panic attack. It’s nothing life-threatening.” I could’ve sworn I saw Dad let out breath he’d been holding in. Maybe I was still a little out of it… “She’ll be fine in a bit, she’s just shaken up.”

Vanya and Klaus came rushing in with Luther, who I hadn’t even noticed had left, and all of a sudden, my breath began to pick up again. Everyone was staring at me, ogling over me like I was some hurt puppy they needed to heal.

They wouldn’t stop looking at me.

Dad seemed to notice I was starting to fall back into what I’d just come out of, and quickly ushered everyone from the room, save for Mom. He tried his best to keep his voice low, but I still caught what he said.

“See to it Number Four rests for the remainder of the week.” Mom nodded, glancing back at me momentarily. “She can resume her training when she is well again.”

That time would never come, though I didn’t know that in the moment.

I expected Dad to make some biting remark as he closed the door, but instead, he just left in silence, shutting the barrier between us as quietly as possible. The second they were gone, the everlasting silence flooded in, and I began to sob, burying my head in my hands. I wished so desperately I could run down to the library and curl up in the corner and read with Ben. Maybe he’d even bring me a book now, so I wouldn’t be bored.

But instead, there was nothing. There would _be_ nothing: no card games, no reading.

Nothing.

**_\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -_ **

**_Okay, wow. This chapter ended up containing a lot more than I’d intended, but I kinda just started running with the emotional intensity, and I’m actually really glad I did._ **


	34. The Most Wanted Family in America

_“Authorities are asking for help identifying several persons of interest at Dealey Plaza sat the time of the assassination. The FBI believes they may have been acting in concert with the alleged shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald. Vanya Hargreeves, wanted in connection with the deaths of several FBI agents inside the Federal Building at Dealey Plaza. A Cuban exile known only as Diego, who recently escaped from the Holbrook Sanatorium. A bare-knuckle boxer with suspected Mafia ties who fights under the alias ‘King Kong’. Allison Chestnut, a Negro radical responsible for instigating and organizing the recent riots at Stadler’s lunch counter. Mina Hargreeves, a local choreographer caught engaging in degeneracy. And finally, Klaus, a controversial cult leader and known tax evader. The FBI is asking the public to be on the lookout for this unidentified boy, who they believe is being held hostage by the suspected terrorist network…”_

I rolled my eyes at their descriptions, disgusted by the way they were painting my family. I still couldn’t believe this twisted time wanted to make me out to be a villain, for something completely normal. I was just about ready to get the hell out of there.

“Well, it’s true.” I turned my attention down to Five, who refused to remove his eyes from the television. “I do feel like I’m being held hostage most days.”

“Oh, ha, ha,” I shot back dryly, rolling my eyes at him.

“God, I hate that photo,” Diego groaned.

“They’re saying I instigated the riot?” Allison scoffed. “That’s unbelievable.”

“They’re trying to tell people who I am is a crime,” I griped. “This is bullshit.” 

All of us finally got our complaints out of the way, leaving room for any other topic of conversation. Luther pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, bringing our attentions toward him.

“Look, the good news is that we restored the timeline and we stopped doomsday. So—“

“Yeah, a real bunch of goddamn heroes,” Diego deadpanned, cutting his brother off. “We let Kennedy die.”

I’d had it with him and his indignance. He truly, genuinely felt like he’d done something right, and we were all giving him shit for no reason, but he hadn’t stopped to think, just like always. For most of our youth, I’d excused it, blaming it on the way Dad pushed on us. And maybe there was still a lot of that to blame, but Diego didn’t listen to us when we tried to stop him. He could have jeopardized humanity.

“Yeah, and now we’re officially the most wanted people in the world,” Allison added, only further fanning the flames. “The FBI is after us, the Dallas Police, the Secret Service. It’s only a matter of time before they hunt us down here.”

As much as I hated to admit it, Allison had a point. We were sitting ducks in this place, especially because it was only a matter of time before they found Elliott’s body abandoned by the water tower and came here to investigate. If we didn’t get out of here soon, we’d all be stuck in prison, with no way to get home. 

“Well, where are we supposed to go?” I sighed, trying to piece something together.

“I have this yurt just outside Reykjavik.” I turned my torso to look up at Klaus, making his way down the stairs. At least he felt well enough to stand up again. “We could totally lay low there. Folks are a little weird, but lovely.”

As much as I loved the idea, there was one fatal flaw in any escape plan.

“Hey, numbnuts,” Five grunted, causing Klaus to stop in his tracks and turn around. “Hiding’s not going to make a difference here. The Commission will hunt us down wherever and whenever we go.”

“He’s right,” I agreed, still refusing to look at my brother. I heard Five scoff from beside me, and finally I trained my gaze to him, not flinching as his angry glare dug into me and made me feel the slightest amount of guilt.

“I’m sorry, since when are you an expert on the Commission?” he demanded, challenging me as though he thought I would somehow falter. However, I instead leaned forward slightly, narrowing my eyelids and staring him down.

“Since I got back from there,” I stated confidently.

“What?” Five almost looked afraid for a second, but he pulled it right back in check.

“Yeah. My ex-girlfriend drugged and kidnapped me and presented me to your ex-boss—by the way, thanks for mentioning they’re related—and offered me a job. They headhunted me.” Five rolled his eyes, really more looking like he was in denial than anything else.

“Really? They headhunted _you_? The pushover?”

I balled my hands into fists and took a step forward, fully ready to take a swing at him for the first time in our lives. Thankfully, before I could take anything too far and do something I’d regret, Allison rushed down the few steps between us and grabbed onto me, bringing me back to reality. 

“I wasn’t given much of a choice, genius,” I taunted, trying to hide the fear I still held from my decisions.

“Mina, you’re not Commission material, all right? You’re too nice.”

“I told you, the Handler didn’t give me a choice.” Five stopped his pacing and whipped back around, staring up at me with wide eyes. “She threatened to wipe you from existence if I didn’t accept.” Five stepped back slightly, alarmed.

“Wha—“

“She… she threatened to shoot our birth mother right after I was born, so you…” I shook my head, unable to finish the thought. “And now, I don’t know if she’s going to act on that because I left, or if she’s just got bigger things to worry about, but all I can do it just turn around and hope that you’re…” I swallowed, my emotions finally catching up with me. The mere thought of the alternative option caused a chill to run through me. “Look, I managed to figure out doomsday on the ISB and get back here. We stopped it because of that. Isn’t that what matters?”

“Are you kidding?” Five laughed. “They let you, of all people, look at the Infinite Switch Board.”

“I had some help, but yeah,” I shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“This isn’t helping,” Luther groaned, pacing to the other side of the room.

“Look, I met the resistance in their secret lair. I managed to sit through the orientation video for two minutes, then I snuck out and managed to get into one of the ISB rooms without anyone seeing me. So, don’t worry. You’re still all high and mighty,” I taunted.

“You seriously think that’s what this is about?” Five demanded, taking a step closer to me.

“Oh, come on. You can’t look at me and tell me you don’t feel even the least bit threatened.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Luther spoke up, stepping back into place among the rest of our siblings. “The Feds could be here any minute.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Allison insisted, resting her head in her hands.

“I’m agreeing!” I jumped back slightly, alarmed by Luther’s sudden shouting. I didn’t think he was capable of yelling in general, so to see him directing that toward Allison was completely unprecedented.

“Okay, calm down, Hairy—“ Luther wouldn’t even let Five finish.

“Hey, it’s King Kong. And I’m sick of your ass.” He whipped around and pointed right at me. “Yours, too. You both are ridiculous. This has to be about the dumbest argument I’ve heard in this family. You’re both fighting for literally no reason.”

My eyes drifted down toward my shoes, watching them scuff against the linoleum. The truth behind my sudden burst of anger started to poke its way through.

“I don’t blame him,” I sighed. “I made a promise, and I couldn’t keep it. I’d be pretty pissed at me, too.”

I couldn’t lift my eyes again, until Five spoke.

“You got kidnapped. You couldn’t control that.”

The anger and sadness completely left me, allowing for remorse to make its way in. None of our little sibling spats ever got that bad before.

I stepped forward, choosing to throw up the white flag, and crouched down, pulling my brother into a hug. It took him a moment, but thankfully, he hugged me back, and from the looks of it, all was healed again.

We needed that now.

“All right, all right.” Luther cut into the moment he’d spurred on. “We need to move. That is more important. That is our only option.” 

“We need to box these windows and stay here,” Diego argued.

“I’m leaving.”

Everyone directed their attention to Vanya, who was now standing on the other side of the room, right by the stairs. When had she gone up to the platform?

Granted, that wasn’t the most important part of the conversation. Vanya had just declared something that put everyone at risk.

“What?” I asked, slightly baffled. “To go where?”

“Sissy’s farm.” Vanya stood firm on her declaration, unwavering even as the rest of our siblings threw up their eyebrows at her. “Something’s wrong with Harlan, and I need to help him.”

It was noble for her to want to help Sissy’s son, and I understood why she wanted to go back, but there was still too big of a risk. However, I couldn’t bring myself to be the one to break that news to her.

“Vanya, we need to stick together, okay?” Luther tried his best to keep the blow from sounding harsh. “Now more than ever.”

“That’s why I’m telling you this,” she declared, stepping closer to all of us. “Whatever’s going on with Harlan, I think I might’ve caused it.” I furrowed my brows, unsure of what she was even attempting to hint at.

“How?” I questioned, allowing all of us to have clarification. Vanya hesitated a moment, the memory of whatever happened causing her face to sour slightly, before she was finally able to get it out.

“He drowned, and, uh… somehow, I was able to bring him back to life. And now, it’s like we’re connected.”

My brain went blank, unsure of how to even process that. The nature of the world had always been once something or someone died, they were gone. Nothing could reverse that. Not to mention, even if one of us had powers that could bring someone back to life, they certainly didn’t match Vanya’s. How the hell was any of this even possible?

“Wh—“ I cut myself off, still attempting to process the implications of what Vanya had just dropped on us. “What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know,” Vanya admitted. “I can’t explain, but… I know that he needs my help. I need your help, too. I’m scared. And for the first time in my life, I don’t wanna do it alone. I want my family by my side.”

I closed my eyes, unwilling to face this reality. I couldn’t bear the thought of abandoning Vanya, especially when things were this dire. Not to mention, this was a young child she wanted to save. He deserved a chance to be normal, and live the sort of life we never had. But, at the same time, I knew the rest of my siblings wouldn’t agree, and there was no way Vanya and I could do this on our own.

“Look, I’m sorry.” Diego’s words came out gravely, getting caught in his throat. “We have other priorities right now.”

“Diego’s right… for once,” Five muttered reluctantly. “We need to make our stand here and now.”

Silence hung in the air for a short while, completely separating her from the rest of our family… just like always.

“Mina?” I refused to open my eyes and face her disappointment. She waited for me to do something, but I just couldn’t. “Okay. I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”

I waited until her footsteps had faded and the door slammed shut to open my eyes again. My siblings all looked saddened and remorseful, but no one bothered to speak up or try and sway the popular opinion.

I refused to accept she was going to do this alone.

“Guys, we have to go after her,” I asserted, not leaving room for someone to argue with me. “We abandoned her for her entire life, and now, we have the chance to at least try and fix a fraction of that damage, and you’re just going to sit here?”

“Mina, the Feds can find us there easily,” Diego tried to argue.

“It’s a farm in the middle of nowhere,” I shot back. “I’ve been there. Luther, you’ve been there, too. It’s practically at the end of the world. They’re not going to go all the way out there to find us. And, if they do, let them come. We’ve got superpowers, for Christ’s sake. We can use them.”

Klaus abruptly stood up and headed out in the direction Vanya had just gone, disappearing outside. That settled things for me. 

“And Klaus just left, so you know where I stand.”

Right as I was about to turn and leave, Diego let out a huff, then pushed past me and headed toward the alley door. Allison followed soon thereafter, with a tiny smile on her face, and Five went once she’d gone. That just left Luther and I. I worried I’d have to attempt and coerce him into coming along, but thankfully, after a moment of staring, he sighed and started to walk toward me, solidifying our familial support.

Crisp air gave me a little jolt of energy as I opened the door into the sunshine. The blue car Vanya drove was stalling right in front of us, already containing Diego, Allison, and Klaus. Five stood in the passenger doorway, leaning in to speak to his sister.

“Children ride in the back.” Five nodded his head toward the back seat, causing Klaus to suddenly vault himself in between Diego and Allison, nearly kicking them in the face. I smirked as I made my way over to the car, taking the same path my brother had a moment ago.

“And twin brothers get the seatbelt, so move.”

Five huffed, but still slid out so I could sit between him and Vanya, forcing him to take the seatbelt. I wasn’t taking any chances here.

With that taken care of, I turned my head and smiled at my sister, who offered me one right back.

“I’m not gonna abandon you.” I reached over and squeezed her shoulder, setting the support in stone and assuring everything was good.

“Guys, I don’t know what to say.” Vanya’s smile was practically overwhelming her face, causing my heart to swell. She deserved this happiness all the time.

Once Vanya turned around, the back opened, and Luther crawled in. The car groaned and squeaked under his weight, and as he finally settled in, the entire back of the car listed beneath him, dipping to the point where I heard the tailpipe strike the ground. All of us stared at Luther with wide eyes, trying our best to hold back our laughter.

“Anyone makes a fat joke and I’m outta here,” he warned.

Shrugging, I turned back around, and Vanya finally pressed down on the gas, pulling us out of the alley and heading toward Sissy’s farm. I felt a giddy sort of optimism the closer we got. We were going to fix this… together.


	35. Unexpected

My jaw refused to remove itself from the ground as we pulled into the long driveway of Sissy’s farm. Everything Vanya had told us about this situation was already confusing and unreal, to the point where I thought things couldn’t get any weirder.

Boy, was I wrong. The large snowstorm swirling above the barn proved that much.

I couldn’t begin the fathom an explanation for this. I’d been the closest any of us had to control over the weather, but even then, it was limited. If Vanya had truly given Harlan powers of some kind, wouldn’t they be closer to hers? I wasn’t doubting what had happened, especially because of the evidence swirling around in front of us, but there were pieces that just didn’t line up correctly.

“You think whatever’s going on inside is causing the cold front?” Diego asked, staring in awe at the flashing, roaring storm.

“Well, the correlation is high,” Five sassed, shaking his head at his brother.

Suddenly, Sissy burst out of the trembling blonde, aiming a shotgun straight at our faces. I jumped back and stuck an arm out in front of Five in alarm, attempting to protect him from a potential shot to the face—never mind the fact Sissy had the weapon pointed _far_ too high for that.

“Sissy! Sissy!” Vanya cried, trying to calm her down.

“Get back!” the mother warned, threatening us into staying in place. “All of you, just get the hell back!”

“Sissy! Hey, hey, what’s wrong?” I was impressed with my sister’s efforts to keep her voice steady, despite the confusing and frightening circumstances. Sissy must’ve put two and two together and linked Vanya to this… or maybe she just saw the news. Either way, her paranoia was completely justified, but I still didn’t appreciate having a gun aimed at me.

“Carl,” Sissy finally panted, glancing at all of us with wide eyes. I could only assume Carl was the husband in this scenario.

“What did he do to you?” Sissy began to shake her head violently, still attempting to pull herself together.

“He…” She finally managed to take a deep breath and compose herself ever so slightly. “He’s dead. Harlan tossed him aside like a rag doll, same way you sent those police men flyin’.”

I blinked at the blonde woman, unsure of what to think. This was _way_ more complicated and dangerous than I’d initially thought. If Harlan had more than one power, and lacked the emotional control—just like Vanya did in the beginning, and still partially did—this could quite literally blow up in our faces very quickly.

“What did you do to him?” Sissy demanded, her voice rising in intensity again. “What the hell did you do to my son?”

“We don’t have time for this.” Diego tried to march up toward the barn, but Sissy whipped around and aimed the barrel straight between his eyes.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she screamed.

“To help your son,” Diego explained. Sadly, he wasn’t getting through to her.

“Look, Sissy, I found my family.” Vanya gestured around to all of us, causing me to awkwardly wave, despite the fact we’d already been introduced. “These are my brothers and sisters.” Slowly, Sissy lowered the rifle back down to her side, staring at the seven of us in disbelief.

“Ma’am,” Luther muttered, waving. Sissy’s head continued to shake back and forth, denying what she saw in front of her.

“Were you lyin’ to me the whole time?” Her voice shook as the question came out, little remnants of tears making an appearance on her eyelashes when she blinked.

“Of course not,” Vanya assured her. For the first time since our arrival, she took steps closer to Sissy. “Look, I didn’t know who I was. But I do now. And we are not the monsters that they say we are. We did not kill the president. We are not terrorists. We’re not here to hurt anyone.”

“Then… who are you?” I watched proudly as Vanya straightened a little, her confidence growing with the moment.

“The only one who can help Harlan.”

Though she still appeared slightly reluctant, Sissy nodded and turned to lead us into the barn. As we got closer, the same pressure from inside the FBI building began to build in my head, pressing against my eyes and ears. The moment Vanya threw open the door, I was nearly blinded by blue and orange light, swirling around a small boy—likely no older than ten—suspended in the middle of it all.

“Harlan, it’s Vanya!” my sister cried out, trying to get through to the boy. He remained twitching and listing in midair, as though he was just being tossed along under the ocean’s waves. “Look, Harlan, I know you’re really scared right now, but I can help you. I need you to listen to me, okay? Can you do that?”

Taking his gasping as a yes, Vanya inhaled sharply, then channeled the sounds around her and stepped through, approaching Harlan with careful steps. Beyond that point, none of us could hear her anymore, and it was even hard to really see her, but I trusted she could handle it. All of our siblings and Sissy watched with baited breath, hoping for both of them to come out the other end relatively unharmed. I’d been so focused on my sister and this little boy, I’d failed to notice Klaus had wandered away from us.

“Uh… guys?” Klaus called out, bringing our attentions over to him. He was staring out the other door of the barn, out into what looked like a completely open field.

“What?” I sighed. Curious, I decided I could tear myself away from this scene for a moment and check out whatever the hell Klaus was trying to tell us about. As I peeled away, the rest of my siblings followed, leaning over to try and get a look at what was out there.

My heart stopped when I finally focused on the two figures all the way out there. The bright white head of curls and short, straight hair beside her gave it away completely. They’d tracked us all the way out here, just like Five and I assumed, but it was just the two of them. We might be able to deal with this.

“Who are they?” Klaus questioned, glancing around at the rest of us.

“One’s the Handler, the other’s Mina’s girlfriend,” Five explained calmly.

“Lila. That’s my _ex_ -girlfriend,” I corrected, throwing up at eyebrow as I glanced down at my brother.

“What?”

“You know what? Doesn’t matter,” Luther interjected. “They both look angry.”

“Yeah.”

“Our brother has that effect on people,” Allison pointed out, causing me to snicker despite the circumstances. 

“I’m gonna go out there and find out what they want,” Five declared. “You guys stay with Vanya and the kid.” I shook my head. This was my monster to face, too.

“I’m coming with you, too.” Before Five could protest, I pushed past my siblings and started down the hill. “Come on.”

Five caught up in a matter of seconds, sticking close to me and keeping up with my stride. The closer we got, the more my stomach began to churn, and truthfully, I feared staring Lila in the face again. However, I wasn’t about to let Five deal with this alone, and if push came to shove, I wouldn’t mind throwing a punch straight into the Handler’s face.

The moment we were within earshot, the Handler flashed us a cheap smile and laughed to herself.

“I love the smell of that fresh country air, don’t you darling?” she asked in that lilting, innocent voice.

“Makes me want to vomit,” Lila snapped, staring Five down with daggers for eyes. What the hell happened?

“What do you want?” Five sighed, clearly exasperated.

“To watch you suffer,” my ex stated bluntly, still directing her attention toward her brother. I raised an eyebrow, still attempting to piece together what the hell was going on here.

“What about me?” I held strong as Lila channeled her anger toward me.

“You’re not even worth my wrath.”

“Okay…” I nodded, taking that as it was. Not that it provided me with any sort of answers.

“Easy,” the Handler warned her daughter, forcing her to stand down. “We’re here on official business.”

“And what business is that?” Five scoffed at her, as though he expected her to come up completely short. Unfortunately, this woman knew what she was doing.

“As head of the Commission, I’ve decided to eliminate the criminals responsible for the assassination of the former board of directors.”

For a split second, I laughed, confident she’d gotten her facts wrong… that was, until I thought back just a bit beyond the last day, when Five told me he had to kill in order to get us back home.

Goddammit…

“ _That’s_ who you killed?” I huffed, turning and glaring down at Five. “The entire board of directors?” Five’s silence told me everything I needed to know.

“You didn’t tell them.” The Handler almost seemed delighted by that statement, not that any part of that surprised me. “Oh, Five.”

“Okay, I know you said you had to do it, but did you really think this wouldn’t come back to bite her? I mean, what in the hell did you see in this deal?”

“I was more focused on the fact I’d be getting my family back home,” he hissed. “Until _somebody_ reneged on our deal.”

“Somebody wouldn’t have reneged if somebody could’ve met a simple deadline. Alas.” I scoffed, unable to believe the words coming out of the Handler’s mouth. She’d had a pretty direct role in all of that.

“You set me up to fail,” Five reminded her.

“You set yourself up to fail, friend,” she countered coldly. “You and your brothers and sisters. Kinda the running theme in your life, isn’t it?”

Immediately, my blood curdled. The fact that she _dared_ to make an accusation like that absolutely infuriated me. She couldn’t claim to know my brother in the way she did—ew—if she could casually make accusations like this.

“You don’t have the right to say shit like that,” I barked, taking a step forward. “My brother wouldn’t even _dare_ to think of leaving any one of us behind, and you two are all-too-familiar with the fact I wasn’t there when we were supposed to go. You kept me tied down on purpose to make sure we couldn’t leave you conniving bitch.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I stepped back again, shocked. I’d snapped before, but never to the point of saying those sort of things. Maybe I really did need to work on that…

“Mina—“ I turned on my heel and stared down at Five.

“I can’t believe you killed the board of directors. You have _no_ idea how messed up the Commission is right now.” That seemed to break through the Handler’s barrier.

“Messed up? Who’s saying that?” I smirked, satisfied with the fact I’d finally managed to affect her.

“Everybody,” I chuckled, enjoying this. “Christ, even the janitors think it’s going to shit.”

“That’s not all he killed,” Lila interjected. Five and I furrowed our brows, unclear on what was happening here. After all, from what I understood, Five killed a lot of people. Could she really be angry about that? Something she’d done herself?

“What are you talking about?” Five sighed, finally trying to get some clarification.

“Don’t play dumb, you prepubescent piece of shit.” Before either of us could get a straight answer, the Handler set down her briefcase, drawing our attention away from the enraged woman.

“Enough. The point is, all of you are going to die today. Hmm?” I shook my head, smiling to myself. She certainly was a cocky woman, that was for sure.

“Well, I don’t like your chances,” I shrugged. “Eight of us, two of you.”

The way the Handler smirked at Five and I caused a chill to run through me. That wasn’t a good sign…

“You know, you’re right. Let’s change that.”

Triumphantly, she raised her right hand in the air and snapped her fingers. I genuinely expected the two of us to just dry up and disappear, but instead, field agents in dark blue suits, a few in animal masks, started to appear in the field behind her, doubling by the second. My eyes widened slowly as they popped up quicker and quicker, until there were likely thousands of them.

Eight of us, thousands of them. That definitely put us in deep shit.

“So what do we do know?” I whispered to my brother, unable to tear my eyes away from the terrifying crowd before us.

“Well, we got two choices: fight and die now, or run and die later. Either way, we’re food for worms.” I had a personal preference, but I wasn’t about to take over if Five had some sort of plan brewing.

“Preference?” My brother shrugged, as though I lives weren’t hanging on a thin string right before our eyes.

“Wouldn’t mind a few more minutes breathing air through the old windbags.” I’d take that. It definitely was the better of the two options.

“All right. Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

The Handler removed a bright, red scarf from her pocket and held it proudly in the air, making sure her entire army could see it. Panicked, I grabbed onto my brother’s arm and started to drag him back with me, trying to get as close to the house as possible. If we could reach there, we might get a chance.

The moment the cloth dropped, the shouts and bullets started raining.


	36. Brand New

The way my heart screamed in my ears stood unmatched by any other moment spurred purely by adrenaline. I wasn’t quite sure how my life had reached the point where I’d been placed in a position to run from bullets fired at me multiple times, but I guess nothing really ever goes according to plan. The best I could do was attempt to run right behind Five, in a vain attempt to keep him from getting shot, and steer the two of us behind anything that could shield us from the momentary hellfire. Klaus, Allison, Diego, and Luther were in the same position as the two of us, frantically scrambling to protect themselves from harm. Snow from the storm Harlan created crunched beneath our feet, causing us to slip on a few occasions. Everything combined made it feel like the brick red tractor only a few hundred feet in front of us feel as though it rested on the other side of a mountain.

“We’re not gonna make it!” I screamed, my brain officially beginning to shut itself down. The world around me began to close into tunnels, the white-hot sensation I hadn’t felt since my youth overtaking my limbs.

I barely registered as Five set a hand on one of my arms, crying out in pain as we jumped just in front of our intended hiding place. Unable to completely process what just happened, my stomach lurched, threatening to spill over the little bits of food I’d been able to consume earlier in the day.

“Five, I think I’m gonna puke,” I declared, swallowing down the rising burning sensation.

“No time,” he snapped, stumbling a little over his own feet. The two of us managed to get behind the tractor, burying ourselves in the groove of one of the hub caps. Every time a bullet came too close, we flinched, trying our best to formulate some semblance of a plan. “What now?”

“We blink into the house!” I made it sound like it was the obvious move, but in the flurry of panic, it was difficult to even keep one thought straight.

“Okay.”

I kept my eyes on the approaching waves of soldiers as Five set his hands on my knees and my shoulders. I heard the familiar ‘whoosh’ of energy, but when I blinked, I found myself still staring at the same sight as before. The threat kept growing closer, but with every try, Five and I remained stuck in place. Concerned, I tore my gaze away from the blue suits and stared at my brother, who appeared equally as terrified.

“I’m out of fuel,” he gasped, “and you’re burning my hands.”

Sure enough, when Five extended his palms out, I noticed the bright red marks on them. Those would no doubt leave a scar on him. Despite my best attempts to rationalize everything, my mind had almost completely shut itself down, leading to unconscious charges in electricity; it was getting out of control at this point, and I feared what would happen if Five was around for the impact.

“Go!” I urged. “I’ll… I’ll cover for you.” Five glared at me with wide eyes, as though unsure if he’d heard what I’d said correctly.

“Mina, what are you—“ Before Five could protest any further, I stood up and pushed myself away from our hiding space, suddenly unafraid of what could happen to me.

Although I could already feel the electricity overwhelming my being, I wanted more of a charge; there was no way in hell that I could take out all of them, but a pretty sizable crowd was enough for me. Trouble was, I couldn’t exactly move well in the snow or on grass, not to mention the bullets growing ever-closer. I was just about to take what I had and hope that it worked out, when the projectiles heading straight for me suddenly bent in midair and slowed, as though there was a shield around my person. Wrapped in confusion, I turned on my heel, my jaw dropping as I stared at Diego. He’d emerged from his hiding place and had his arms stuck out in front of him, directing bullets away from me in midair. I hadn’t realized he could control the trajectory of objects he _hadn’t_ thrown, but here I was, standing wildly corrected.

“Mina!” he snapped, bringing me back to reality.

Realizing I didn’t have much time, I started to move in careful circles, taking care not to misstep and fall on my ass. Every part of me burned, overwhelmed with an intense fire as I noticed the glow of electricity intensifying out of my peripheral vision. I wasn’t exactly sure what qualified as ‘ready’, given I’d only done this once before, and it was on accident, but at some random point, I made the decision to stop. Taking only a split second to catch myself, I took a leap into the air and slammed myself back down onto the cold, muddy ground. As the wet grass beneath me splattered and squelched between my fingers, a large wave of electricity shot out in front of me, causing a good quarter of the group to cry out and fry before collapsing to the ground.

I didn’t have time to celebrate my victory, however, because the bullets just kept coming, forcing me to duck right back down behind the tractor as Diego threw the suspended projectiles to his right, causing a generator to explode. I flinched and stared at the fire until Diego ducked down beside me, unsure of how to react to what had just happened. Immediately, I flashed him a big, cheesy grin.

“Since when have you been able to do that?” I laughed, somehow jovial despite the circumstances.

“I took a wild guess,” he admitted, throwing his hands over his head as the next wave of bullets came right at us. “What about you? I didn’t know you could make shockwaves.”

“I did it once, when we were seventeen,” I informed him. “It was on accident that time, and I totally forgot about it until recently. I didn’t know how to do it, so you could say I took a wild guess.” Through the panic and fear, he flashed me a smile as I tossed his words back at him.

I turned myself around for a moment, peering over the edge of the massive tire. I wasn’t entirely sure what I expected to see, but it sure as hell wasn’t any better than the scene we’d started with. In the moment, I’d thought I’d done a pretty substantial amount of damage, but looking at the group now completely squashed that thought. My brothers and sisters and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about this, especially because most of us couldn’t do any damage from where we sat; Vanya was likely still wrapped up with Harlan, meaning we were shit out of luck at the moment—a fact only further cemented when a surge of energy boomed from the barn, followed by the sounds of woods and boards crashing. No doubt that knocked her down for a while.

“What do we do know?” I shouted over the endless sputtering of bullets released from their weapons, trying to think of anything myself.

“I can try and direct some of those bullets back at them, but I’ll need a couple minutes.” Only now did I notice Diego’s tanned skin had taken on a slightly more pallid appearance. That really must have wiped him out.

A sudden wave of dizziness came over me—a delayed reaction to that shockwave. It had been a long while since any use of my abilities had worn me out, but I supposed that was the consequence of something so big; that probably would have wiped out Luther if he tried to use it.

“We’re running out of options,” I observed, though that wasn’t really necessary. Even the densest among us could have figured that out. “Someone’s got to do something and _fast_ , because some of us can’t go out there without getting shot!”

Right as the words left my mouth, I heard a high-pitched tone resonating from the barn. What had previously been a source of unease now filled me with overwhelming determination. The best solution was being handed right to us, so long as Vanya could work up enough energy.

My jaw dropped slightly when Vanya _floated_ out of the goddamn barn like some sort of ethereal balloon, draped in an aura of sound energy. The tone she played only grew louder as she stared down the army, which somehow had failed to notice her yet. Light flooded straight into the orb resting against her chest, causing it to grow in a matter of milliseconds. I’d been so caught up in the awe of it all that I completely neglected to process the fact she was about to blow, until Diego grabbed onto me and pulled on my shoulders, forcing me to duck down.

The impact of the energy wave she sent out went completely over our heads, but it did no less to completely jar me. I jumped as the ‘boom’ she sent out echoed in my headspace, bouncing off all the corners of my skull, but she didn’t do any more damage to the rest of us. Instead, everything was concentrated on the mob of Commission field agents, who were sent tumbling and crashing together in the air, before landing definitively on the grass, unmoving; no chests moved with desperate breaths, no fingers unconsciously twitched. They weren’t an issue anymore.

The damage done, Diego and I cautiously peered out from behind our hiding spot, noticing only the dead bodies at first and thus, deeming it safe to come out. We reveled in our triumph for just a moment, until our eyes dared to wander past the fall line, and we caught a blue glow eerily similar to that still emanating from our sister. Curiously, it enshrouded Lila and her mother, completely protecting them from Vanya’s wrath. Admittedly, somewhere buried deep down, there was a part of me that was relieved Lila hadn’t been hurt, but the horror of the scene in front of us completely overtook any of that. Nothing like _this_ had ever come up in our late-night conversations, but then again, what did I expect? The life she’d presented to me had been a lie, what’s one more?

Before I had time to question anything, Lila completely mimicked Vanya’s prior actions, right down to the whole show of rising in the air. I felt frozen in my spot, caught off-guard and unsure of what to do, and it wasn’t until Diego shoved me away that I managed to bring my mind back to me. Lila fired of her own energy, sending the tractor and other transport systems into the air, as well as the rest of us. Luther managed to get launched all the way through Sissy’s roof, while the rest of us were simply sent right onto the ground. Thankfully, Klaus managed to summon two ghosts to catch him before he made impact, while I was just forced to take it.

The intense pain surging through my chest paled in comparison to the terror that washed over me when I looked up. Lila had lowered herself back onto the ground, her eyes scanning over the rest of my downed siblings before she turned to me, specifically. Her smirk made something within me turn to ice, wary of what she’d do next.

The tables had turned, and I wasn’t so sure I liked the direction they now faced.


	37. Mirror Image

Laying there, sprawled out in the snow, I began to regret opting to come out here without putting a shirt on first. I had no way of knowing we’d be walking straight into the aftermath of a sudden weather event, but even for the November winds and nights it wasn’t the wisest option; the coat did absolutely nothing.

Hindsight is 20/20, I suppose, which would have helped me with the situation I currently found myself in.

I couldn’t begin to fathom what would have tipped me off Lila had some sort of abilities. She’d never once slipped up and let any sign show, even when she was fighting. Back at the consulate, she relied purely on her strength and the abilities the Commission had taught her, despite the fact she could have easily wiped out all three of those men in one go. Not to mention, I couldn’t put together some scenario where she had powers. As far as any of us had known, we were the only eight people in the world with any sort of powers. We’d been born with them, whether we liked it or not; so how in the hell did Lila just redirect what Vanya shot her way?

Before I could dwell on it any further, there was another loud crash behind me, and when I whipped around, I found another large hole in Sissy’s home, with Luther coughing and gasping among the wreckage and rubble. On instinct, Allison rushed to his side, crouching down next to him and attempting to help him up. I felt that inexplicable rage building back up in me as Lila appeared in the hole, indicating to me she’d made that herself. How she’d done that without breaking down the entire house, I had no idea, but there wasn’t enough time to dwell on it.

I was about to run over there myself, when I heard a pained groan behind me. Panicked, I turned and looked down, eyes widening as I spotted Diego’s leg crushed underneath the tractor we’d used as a defense just moments ago. He cried out as he strained himself, attempting to somehow wiggle out from beneath the piece of equipment that held a vice grip on him. There was no way I’d be able to get him out from under there myself, and it looked like the rest of my siblings were down. Still…

“Allison, help!” I cried out desperately. “Luther! Vanya, help!”

Thankfully, those of my siblings who were willing and able rushed to my side, offering their help. Luther could lift this thing on his own no problem, so I made my way around and positioned myself to grab onto Diego, so we could just slide him out from beneath.

“What took you so long?” Diego snapped as we fell into our positions.

“Well, we’re here now,” Luther shot back. “Do you wanna stop complaining?”

“Or we could just leave you here,” Klaus suggested, trying to catch his breath.

“What he said,” Allison gasped out.

“Does everything in this family have to be a discussion?” Vanya sighed, glancing at all of us. Clearly, she was still trying to get a few pieces of her memory back, otherwise she’d remember being a part of some of these conversations.

Somehow, even when we attempted to coordinate with a countdown, it was all disjointed and I’d managed to fall into a daze for a moment, only snapping back to it as Luther lifted up the tractor and everyone began to shout. Startled, I reached down and grabbed each of Diego’s hands, yanking violently and managing to get him out from under there. Luckily, he got up to his feet just a second later, meaning somehow, it hadn’t been broken, despite the impact.

“Team Zero!” he cheered. “Unstoppable.”

I cringed with secondhand embarrassment as Luther’s fist made impact with Diego’s open palm. They both blinked at each other, shaking their hands like that would somehow dispel the awkwardness smothering everyone within range.

Wanting to do anything but look at this scene, I averted my gaze from my two brothers in front of me, which tipped me off that a certain member of our family still wasn’t here. Everyone else had gathered around, but that didn’t make a complete set of us. Frantically, I whipped around and tried to cover all angles, but no matter where I looked, I couldn’t spot him.

“Okay, has anyone seen Five?” I tried to keep my tone calm, but a little voice crack slipped through.

“I don’t know,” Luther shrugged, acting as though this was casual, “he’s around here somewhere.” I shook my head, running words through my heads to keep myself from losing my mind. “By the way, your ex-girlfriend can blink like Five.”

I shot my head back up, staring at Luther incredulously. How… how was that possible? How could any person have two completely different sets of abilities?

“Yeah, that bitch just rumored me so I couldn’t breathe,” Allison added, still slightly winded.

“And destroyed, like, half the farm with a shockwave. So unoriginal.” Klaus waved his hand, like this was all so blasé.

“If she can do everything we can, she might as well be one of us.”

At first, everyone laughed at Vanya’s suggestion, including Vanya herself, brushing it off. Nothing matched up in the description, so how would that be possible? Every one of us had a distinct set of abilities, and anything that came along with the ones we’d familiarized ourselves with were at least related in some way. Lila’s were a completely haphazard set—

I paused in the middle of my train of thought. Lila’s abilities all directly matched something we had, meaning they maybe weren’t natural to her. Instead, she was like a mirror, creating a perfect replica of our powers.

Well, shit.

“No.” Luther was the first of us to speak, the realization clearly buried in him as well. “No, there’s no way. It can’t be.”

“It’s a reasonable conclusion,” Allison contradicted.

“Eh, but there were only eight of us,” Klaus shrugged, still in his own denial.

“Maybe we need to consider that there’s more,” Vanya reasoned.

“Are we surprised?” Allison scoffed. “Dad never told us the whole truth about anything.”

Once the statement left my sister’s lips, everyone turned their attention to me, waiting for some sort of response. I stared right back at them with wide eyes, shrugging my shoulders a bit too aggressively. 

“What?” Something resembling a smirk crossed Allison’s features, which soon spread to Klaus.

“You’re two-for-two now, Mina,” Allison giggled, getting a kick out of all of this.

Upon registering her words, my eyelids narrowed, and I lunged out to shove her, before reaching out to smack Klaus on the back of his head. Despite all that, they laughed to each other, acting as though not a thing in the world could deter their teasing. Left with no other options, I rolled my eyes at them and turned away, focusing back on trying to find the last missing member of our family, leaving Diego and Luther lost and confused—that wasn’t exactly something new for them.

“Okay, so, if she can mirror our powers, that means anything we throw at her, she can match, right?” Luther asked, trying to steer people back to a conversation she understood.

“Yeah, but she can only mirror one of our powers at a time.” Klaus spoke with such assertion and certainty, but we hadn’t seen anything to completely confirm that fact.

“You sure about that?”

Before he could answer me, there was a crash and a loud ‘clang’ inside the barn, immediately causing me to jump up and scramble over there.


	38. Seconds, not Decades

The moment my siblings and I reached the barn doors, I stopped dead in my tracks and stuck my hand up, causing them to do the same. Five and Lila stood bloodied, bruised, and panting, their fists clenched tightly as they stared each other down with complete and utter contempt. Neither of them had noticed the rest of us in the doorway, but based on the topic of conversation, that was probably a good thing. They needed to hash this out on their own… unless someone was at risk of dying, of course.

“This isn’t gonna be quick,” Lila sneered, her breath visible against the dark boards of the barn. “You are going to suffer for what you did.” Five slammed his hands against his side, brows furrowed.

“Lady, I got no idea what you’re talking about,” he admitted. I tensed as she stepped closer to him, her feet heavy with the weight of whatever burden she was bearing.

“Ronnie and Anita Gill.” The venom completely dropped from her tone as the names spilled from her lips. She spoke them with a sort of authority, as though asserting to Five that he absolutely should remember them. He, however, continued to blink at her like she had two heads.

“Mean nothing to me,” he finished, attempting to feel out where this was going.

“1993. East London. You hog-tied them and you shot them in the head.”

I leaned against the doorway, my insides lurching at the mere image of that. I sometimes allowed myself to forget the brutal things my brother had done with his own hands, but one way or another, they resurfaced to give me another image of gore to keep me up at night. Still trying my best to remain silent, I took in deep breaths through my nose, attempting to calm myself.

The little bits of hope I had completely tumbled out of me when Five’s expression fell, the memories finally returning to his mind.

“The flower merchants.” The connection immediately clicked for him. “They were your parents?” For the first time, I watched horror overtake Five’s face as he stumbled backwards.

“And they never did anything to anyone.” My heart was rended from my chest as her voice trembled, allowing emotion to seep through. “They didn’t deserve to die like that.”

“You’re right, all right?” Five admitted, trying to put out the fires before they grew too large. “I killed them. But I killed a lot of people over the years. It was just a job, all right? It was nothing personal.”

“’Never personal,’ my ass,” Lila spat, straightening back up again as Five gave her another excuse to bring in resentment. “Yeah, I’ve killed. It’s always, always personal.”

“That’s why you’re not cut out to be an assassin.”

Five jumped back when Lila reached down and removed a knife hidden in her boot. Her knuckles paled as she gripped it like her life depended on it, set to aim it right at my brother’s throat if she needed to.

“Bet your life on that?” There was almost a laugh in her tone. She was _enjoying_ this game they were playing.

“You wanna blame someone? Blame the Handler, all right?” Five spouted out quickly. “She faked the kill order.”

“Bullshit! I saw the kill order.” Lila couldn’t see past the bias she’d been fed throughout her whole life. Her mother was not a good person, yet she would mercilessly defend her when she got the chance. “AJ Carmichael ordered it, and you carried it out.”

My heart hammered throughout my entire body as I watched the scene unfold, tensions and threats mounting by the second. Adrenaline begged me to step in and save my brother, but the logical part of me knew an intervention now could pull someone’s personal trigger. It was better to stay back until absolutely necessary.

“Lila, listen to what I’m telling you, all right?” Five begged. “The Handler gave me the kill order. She came on the job, which she’d never done before. You’re Commission. You know execs never go on jobs, but that day in London, she was there. Ask yourself why.”

Finally, that broke through to Lila. Her bravado and hunger for vengeance became injected with doubt, causing her to slowly lower the weapon so securely gripped in her hand.

“Stop trying to muddy the waters.” Though she intended it to be a threat, her words came off as a plea for help.

“I never realized what she was up to at the time, but… now it all makes sense.”

The way Lila’s face constantly shifted and changed gave every impression she’d finally pieced everything together, but she still refused to accept the situation at hand. Not that I could blame her in any capacity—the life she’d known was suddenly upended for her, forever changing the path she had forward. I hated to think I might be another source of upset, but she had to know everything, and we held information Five clearly didn’t possess.

“She never cared about your parents,” he muttered, trying to bring himself to believe his words as well. “She was looking for _you_.”

I barely heard Lila whisper a ‘why’, but Five’s lost stuttering and concerned expression somehow motivated me to step in, if for no other reason than the sake of saving my brother’s life.

“Because you’re one of us.”

Lila’s rage had completely dissipated by the time she whipped around to face me, searching my face as though I wore a complete roadmap to all her answers. Though I couldn’t give that to her, I could hopefully at least provide her with some sense of ease.

“The Handler stole you, Lila,” I continued, piecing everything together. “Just like our asshole father took all of us.” She began to shake her head vigorously, her knife now primed to run right through my skin.

“No. It’s not the same thing.” With every step I took toward her, Lila’s voice shook more, but she made no more of an effort to hold up her weapon.

“You’re right,” I shrugged. “Because he didn’t have our parents murdered.” That statement only caused her trembling to increase. Realizing I’d misstepped, I tried my best to retreat into a more understanding state, unwilling to completely lose her. “Listen to me, Lila. You were born on October 1, 1989—the same day as all of us.”

I took another step, falsely believing I could get close to her. Immediately, Lila stuck her knife back out, right within stabbing distance. On instinct, the rest of my siblings lunged forward in an attempt to protect me, but I hastily shooed them away, not wanting anything to get out of hand.

“Stay back!” Lila barked at me, forcing away the tears she’d started to cry.

“Hey, hey! Stop!” I ordered, glaring at each one of my six siblings to get them to stand down. “Wait. Wait.” They all relaxed slightly, allowing me to focus back on Lila. “Lila. Lila, stop.”

“I trusted you!” I flinched slightly at the sheer hatred within her voice; at that moment, I felt a little bad for the way I’d snapped at her previously. “I got you a job, I even introduced you to my mother, and then you took off on me.” It took everything in me not to raise my voice at her. There were very few things someone could mess with when it came to me, but these motivations were one of them.

“Because I had to get back to my family,” I sighed. “Lila, I’m sorry, but you have to know that they’re always going to be my first priority.” Unfortunately, that did nothing to dissuade her. “This isn’t the point of the conversation. She’s using you, Lila. The Handler.

“You’re wrong,” she insisted, vigorously bouncing one of her legs. “She raised me. She loves me.”

“Yeah, you know what?”

I turned around slightly, shocked as Luther leaned forward slightly. My heartbeat picked up again, worried about whatever he was about to say. His life in this time period certainly softened his calloused exterior, but he still wasn’t the best at sentiment and disarming a tense situation.

“Love shouldn’t have to hurt this much.”

My eyebrows flew up. That was… surprisingly sweet.

Of course, all that flew out the window when Lila dismissed the statement a second later by pretending to gag.

“All right, I tried.”

“He’s right.” I shot Five a warning glare after he spoke up. “We have to kill her.”

“Hey, Five!” I stuck one hand up, preventing him from taking another step. He looked unamused, but I honestly didn’t give a shit. I wasn’t willing to let any unnecessary lives go. “Five, stop. I got it.” Reluctantly, he unclenched his fists and stepped back again. “Hey, Lila.”

When she turned to look at me again, the innocence and fear in her eyes made something jump forward in my chest, desperately screaming to reach out and hold her and tell her everything was going to work itself out. I’d never seen her this scared, even when she first opened up in Elliott’s dark room. The version of herself she presented at the Commission was the real mask, and beneath the tough act she put up, there was a genuinely kind woman, capable of the love her mother never gave to her.

“Truth?” This time, she let me move closer, leaving us just a couple inches apart. “She’s dangerous. And you’re scared of what she’ll do with all that new power. That’s why you dragged me to the Commission. Because I know what it’s like to love dangerous people. Difference is…”

I glanced around fondly at my family, completely surrounding the two of us. We could fight, we could disagree, and we could even try to kill each other on a few occasions, but in the end, the moment one of us needed any of the others, we’d all officially drop everything and do whatever we could to get to the one of us in danger.

“…they love me back.” The affection that momentarily permeated the air burst when Lila resorted to threatening me with her knife again.

“Shut up,” Lila choked out.

“The only thing she loves is power. Now, the minute she can’t use you, she will turn on you, and deep down, I _know_ you know that.”

“You don’t know me, Mina.”

Her last, futile attempt to push me away.

With a bit of the cocky gusto Five and I shared, I gently lowered the knife she had pressed against my rib cage and smiled at her, reaching up and brushing away a few stray tracks of tears.

“Don’t I?” The anger finally seemed like it had completely left her body. “I know that we can be that support system you need… if you just let us.”

My breath hitched in my throat as she took the last remaining steps between us and stared up at me, almost asking if I was telling the truth. Fearfully, she cast her eyes to the rest of my siblings, who all offered her a reassuring smile… even Five.

Finally, the apprehension died, and I leaned down, resting my forehead against hers. She shook with sobs, so I carefully wrapped my arms around her, bringing her into a warm embrace. My heart ached for her, knowing that she’d buried her real self so far down. It had peeked through on occasion, and when I’d seen it, it was what made me… fall in love with her. Gently, she pushed away just enough to have us look at each other, then she reached up, placing a hand on my cheek and bringing our faces closer together.

The pain didn’t even register at first. I could hear the pops and clatters of shells on the ground, but I’d thought it was somewhere far off, or maybe aimed at someone else completely. Instinctually, my body twitched and flinched, but I still felt nothing. It wasn’t until my legs gave out beneath me, and the force of the shots caused me to collapse to the ground that the stinging finally started. I managed to convince myself it was just a graze, until the stinging separated, creating a burning, consuming pain at several points throughout my torso. The calm confusion turned to panic, especially when Lila screamed and crouched down, shaking me harshly. Her words already started to fade out, merely registering as acoustics in the air. I tried to ask her what happened, what had been done to me, but instead, salty, tangy pools of blood forced themselves up my throat, spilling out the sides of my mouth.

A chill slowly began to spread throughout my bones, creating a pit in my stomach. The shivers completely overwhelmed my person, to the point where it felt like all my energy was going into the futile attempts at warmth. Something sticky stared to soak through my jacket, onto my skin, but I found myself unable to even lift one of my fingers, let alone turn my head.

I just needed a moment to rest and get my energy back.

Then Lila and I could

_dluoc I dna aliL nehT_

_.kcab ygrene ym teg dna tser ot tnemom a dedeen tsuj I_

_.daeh ym nrut enola tel ,sregnif ym fo eno tfil neve ot elbanu flesym dnuof I tub ,niks ym otno ,tekcaj ym hguorht kaos ot derats ykcits gnihtemoS .htmraw ta stpmetta elituf eht otni gniog saw ygrene ym lla ekil tlef ti erehw tniop eht ot ,nosrep ym demlehwrevo yletelpmoc srevihs ehT .hcamots ym ni tip a gnitaerc ,senob ym tuohguorht daerps ot nageb ylwols llihc A_

_.htuom ym fo sedis eht tuo gnillips ,taorht ym pu sevlesmeht decrof doolb fo sloop ygnat ,ytlas ,daetsni tub ,em ot enod neeb dah tahw ,deneppah tahw reh ksa ot deirt I .ria eht ni scitsuoca sa gniretsiger ylerem ,tuo edaf ot detrats ydaerla sdrow reH .ylhsrah em gnikahs ,nwod dehcuorc dna demaercs aliL nehw yllaicepse ,cinap ot denrut noisufnoc mlac ehT .osrot ym tuohguorht stniop lareves ta niap gnimusnoc ,gninrub a gnitaerc ,detarapes gnignits eht litnu ,ezarg a tsuj saw ti flesym ecnivnoc ot deganam I .detrats yllanif gnignits eht taht dnuorg eht ot espalloc ot em desuac stohs eht fo ecrof eht dna ,em htaeneb tuo evag sgel ym litnu t’nsaw tI .gnihton tlef llits I tub ,dehcnilf dna dehctiwt ydob ym ,yllautcnitsnI .yletelpmoc esle enoemos ta demia ebyam ro ,ffo raf erehwemos saw ti thguoht d’I tub ,dnuorg eht no sllehs fo srettalc dna spop eht raeh dluoc I .tsrif ta retsiger neve t’ndid niap ehT_

_.rehtegot resolc secaf ruo gnignirb dna keehc ym no dnah a gnicalp ,pu dehcaer ehs neht ,rehto hcae ta kool su evah ot hguone tsuj yawa dehsup ehs ,yltneG .reh htiw evol ni llaf …em edam tahw saw ti ,ti nees d’I nehw dna ,noisacco no hguorht dekeep dah tI .nwod raf os fles laer reh deirub d’ehs taht gniwonk ,reh rof dehca traeh yM .ecarbme mraw a otni reh gnignirb ,reh dnuora smra ym depparw ylluferac I os ,sbos htiw koohs ehS .sreh tsniaga daeherof ym gnitser ,nwod denael I dna ,deid noisneherppa eht ,yllaniF_

_.eviF neve …elims gnirussaer a reh dereffo lla ohw ,sgnilbis ym fo tser eht ot seye reh tsac ehs ,yllufraeF .hturt eht gnillet saw I fi gniksa tsomla ,em ta pu derats dna su neewteb spets gniniamer tsal eht koot ehs sa taorht ym ni dehctih htaerb yM_

“I know that we can be that support system you need… if you just let us.”

Behind me, I heard a weapon clatter to the ground, and someone let out a loud gasp. Startled, I jumped and whipped around, unsure of exactly what I was staring at. Five had wrestled a gun from the Handler’s grasp, which he now had pointed in her direction, but… how the hell did he know she would be there? Did he see her coming?

Wait… wasn’t he in front of me before?

None of that mattered. Furious, Lila moved to stand next to me, staring down her mother with the same contempt that had been directed toward us just a moment ago.

“It’s true, isn’t it?” Lila snarled. “What Five said.” The Handler turned her attention to the person pointing the gun at her, inhaling deeply. “Answer me! Is it true?”

Before she got the chance to answer, gun shots pierced the air, forcing my hands up over my head as I ducked and stepped in front of Lila. The Handler’s mouth opened, but no sound came out, locked in a silent scream as her suddenly lifeless body slammed against the ground. Dark red blood, appearing nearly black against her pale skin, leaked freely from her mouth, staining her teeth and the yellow hay beneath her. I wanted to be glad she was dead, given the scourge she’d put on my family, but I just felt like I was going to vomit.

Lila suddenly broke out into a sprint, heading right for the object her mother had dropped. Luther, in an attempt to be the hero, lunged forward, but before he got the chance to reach her, I stuck a foot out. He tripped over me, sending the both of us tumbling to the ground. I couldn’t breathe, but I felt a sense of relief as Lila picked up the briefcase and blinked away in a flash of blue light.

With what little energy I had, I managed to turn my head back and watch as Five and the mysterious gun man, now revealed to be one of the goddamn Swedes, aimed their weapons at each other, ready to fire and see who got riddled with more holes. I desperately tried to push Luther off me so I could get up onto my feet, in an attempt to save Five, but I thankfully didn’t need to. After another moment of staring, Five dropped the stolen gun to the ground, putting his hands up.

“Enough.”

The word hung in the air, presenting its challenge to the adversary across from him. The Swede refused to let up at first, the barrel of his gun aimed right at Five’s stomach, but something changed. He raised it for a second, then matched my brother’s motions, backing away slowly. He uttered something in Swedish, which I presumed to be the same statement Five had given, and finally, _finally_ he was out of our lives.

The Handler was dead, the Swedes wouldn’t follow us, and Harlan’s storm had completely disappeared… and the world was still in one piece.

“I almost had her,” Luther growled, glaring at me. “Why the hell did you stop me?”

I wanted to snap at him, to go off on a rant and put him in his place. After all these years of him lecturing me, it would feel good.

But instead, I just laughed.

“You know what?” I giggled. “Despite everything… I still love her.”

That finally got Luther off me, allowing my breaths to return to normal. He rushed off to check on Allison, and while I’d intended to do the same for Five, a glint right by one of my hands stopped me. Carefully, I brushed away the hay and held up a gold pin.

‘Head of Security.’

Smiling, I removed the backing and stuck it on my jacket, hoping it wouldn’t get me in too much trouble with other organizations.

“Who the hell was that guy?” Klaus shouted, pointing at the exit to the barn.

I merely shook my head and laughed again.

Vanya had yet to stand down, however. She suddenly whipped around and began shouting Harlan's name before dashing out of the barn, leaving the rest of us to follow her. Our sister made her way down a secret set of stairs, bringing us down into some sort of underground storage area. The blue and orange energy surrounding Harlan still swirled violently, but its radius had at least died down.

Without a second thought, Vanya stepped inside and spoke to the young boy, her words still completely inaudible to the rest of us. She hesitated a moment, as though worried she'd break something, then rested her hands on Harlan's and closed her eyes. I stared in awe as orange orbs of light rushed through Harlan's skin, absorbing back into Vanya's and causing the field around them to slowly die down. Vanya had, in fact, given him powers, and now, just like that, she'd taken them away.

Was she the only one of us that could do that?

Before I had any more of a chance to ponder that, a violent burst of energy caused all of us to stumble, and finally, the circling flashes of lights disappeared, leaving Harlan as I presumed he had been before this whole mess. He appeared confused as he looked around at all of us, but he wasn't bursting out into another powerful fit, so I took that as a win.

I smiled as Sissy dove forward, pulling him tight against her chest and sobbing. 

As Vanya looked back to the rest of us and smiled, I felt a sense of satisfaction I hadn't been granted since our childhood.


	39. Wrapped Up in a Messy Bow

Five and I had been drawn away from the commotion of the world by a familiar noise outside. The sun was setting in the background, and my brother had gone oddly silent, but the two of us still shared a smile when we emerged out into the world and spotted two familiar, blue-dressed figures standing among the dead bodies. The environmental effects of Harlan’s outburst lingered, making their breath form clouds in front of their mouths.

“Herb. Dot,” Five greeted as they did their best to step over the masses of dead bodies. The horror of that hadn’t quite struck me yet, and part of me hoped it wouldn’t get the chance to before we abandoned the scene altogether.

“Hi, Herb.” I smiled at him cheerfully, offering a small wave to the two of them. I hadn’t known them that well, and yet, they helped me. That was worth a great deal in my mind. More than that, they helped my entire family—a life’s worth of debt and gratitude to me. “All good?”

“It’s good to see you guys,” he responded, reflecting my same expression. He took another glance around at the damage, as though trying to take every ounce of it in. “I still can’t believe it. “Is she…?” Herb drew his fingers across his throat.

“Really dead this time?” There was something jovial in Five’s tone, but this time, I really couldn’t blame him. Though I hated to think it about anyone, that woman was better off dead.

“Oh, yeah,” I confirmed. Herb nodded, his face frozen as he attempted to completely process that the leech had died.

“Now that the Handler’s dead, what happens at the Commission?”

It wasn’t a question I’d thought to ask myself, but I understood why Five did. He’d had a much longer involvement with that group and those people, and even if he didn’t love the place, I got why he still cared about what happened. I, myself, had placed quite a few organizations and groups on my shit list, and yet, I’d still found myself worried about what was going on with them from time to time. There was also the added fact that they had, in a way, saved my brother’s life.

Having been there, and learned how they brought people in the recruit them, maybe I could’ve been a little more understanding about that part of his life.

Herb faltered over his words a bit, his mouth moving with no coherent sounds emerging. His eyes darted around wildly, moving between the ground beneath him to Dot, and then to Five and I before entering some new pattern.

“Just tell them,” Dot urged, nudging him slightly. Herb’s cheeks flushed with bright red blood, and he still jittered with nervous energy slightly.

“Eh—well, we need to elect a new board of directors.” I figured as much, given they’d all been slaughtered. “But, until then, I, um… I’ve been voted in as acting chairperson.”

I gasped as I beamed again, offering my congratulations to Herb. I hadn’t known him for that long, but I could still tell he was an ambitious, capable man. Not to mention, the kindness he possessed hopefully would put the Commission on a different track. A new era was dawning, and it looked pretty promising for the rest of the world, past, present, and future.

“I’m so goddamn nervous,” he shuddered, bouncing on his toes.

“You’ll do fine,” Five assured him. That was about as close to a compliment as it got from him.

“Oh, thank you.” Herb paused a moment, taking time to look between my brother’s face and mine. “Now that you’re standing next to each other, I really _can_ see the resemblance.” The two of us laughed, and I cast my glance over to my brother, who looked up at me with one of the sincerest smiles I’d seen.

“Yeah, it can be hard to tell when we’re apart,” he admitted.

“But of course, the whole age-gap thing can sometimes cause that issue.” His smile faltered until I spoke again. “What with you being older than me and all,” I shrugged.

I couldn’t quite place my finger on it, but it felt like something in me had changed. I’d been closed off for so many years, unwilling to accept what wasn’t right in front of me; I’d held anger toward those that I felt had wronged me in my lifetime, long past its expiration date. Everything about me had been stuck in my past, frozen in an age I’d long outgrown. My temper and unwillingness to just take a step back certainly proved all that. There wasn’t anything in particular that I thought caused the shift, but I definitely felt it in that moment. I could finally admit that Five wasn’t the same person who left that day, but that wasn’t a bad thing by any means. Luther and Allison had changed since our youth, and my dumbass had failed to notice it until recently. Now, I felt as close to them as the rest of my siblings.

Maybe, with time, I could even begin to forgive Dad. Certainly, I would never be able to completely forgive him, but there was room to at least move on from it all.

“Herb, we need a favor.” Five’s voice cut through my daze, directing my attention back to those around me.

“Oh, sure, anything,” he agreed quickly.

“A briefcase.” Five cast another glance to me. “To get back home, where we belong.”

There was almost something sad on Herb’s face as he acknowledged the request. It wasn’t like we’d never be able to see each other again; after all, they could travel wherever and whenever the hell they wanted if they so desired.

My eyes widened as Herb gestured over the field of corpses, widening our reach by quite a bit.

“Take your pick.”

Five started to advance toward the nearest one, but I stuck an arm out in front of him to halt his movements, then slowly wandered through the maze, carefully looking over each of the former owners of the devices. Most of them were just boring people, but a few had alluring, colorful animal masks, drawing my attention to them immediately. A few of them were carbon copies of Hazel and Cha-Cha’s, causing something in my chest to feel hollow for a second, before I focused back on finding the right one. It took me a bit, and I’d made a considerable gap between the other three people involved in this and myself, but I finally stopped in front of an agent whose face had been covered by a bright yellow frog mask. Gently, I kicked him, and when he didn’t move, I snatched up the briefcase.

Triumphant, I marched back toward the others, handing the briefcase to Herb so he could set it properly.

“What was so special about that one?” Five inquired, one of his eyebrows raised high in the air. I just shrugged, my eyes wandering back to the body I’d stolen from a moment ago.

“I liked his mask.” My brother scoffed and rolled his eyes at me, but I saw the smile he didn’t do much to suppress.

“Is this how you make all of your decisions?”

“Of course not. But that made it more fun.”

As the exchange ended, Herb handed the briefcase back to us, stating there was no time limit—we could just go whenever we were ready. Thought it was bittersweet, we had to say our goodbyes to each other, and just like that, Herb and Dot were gone, like they’d never been here in the first place. Hopefully, they’d use those body removal services Herb had mentioned to get rid of all these guys, before someone came onto Sissy’s property and blamed her or Harlan.

With the last piece of our puzzle put in place, Five and I turned and started marching back up the hill, ready to gather up the rest of our siblings and get the hell of out there. We hadn’t been walking for very long, when something from earlier came back to gnaw at me.

“Hey, I have a question.” Five hummed, indicating he’d heard me. “How’d you know the Handler was going to be in the barn when you disarmed her?”

Immediately, Five stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes pointed straight ahead at some unknown point. It was like his brain had completely left his body, unwilling to allow him to exist for another second. Concerned, I turned around and rushed for him, worried something happened to him in the flurry of everything, and it was just now afflicting him.

When he looked up at me, however, I knew it was something deeper. I’d seen those same eyes before, every time he talked about seeing our family dead.

It took me a second to catch on, but when I did, I completely froze up. It happened _again_. This was more than mere coincidence at this point.

My mind raced when I pulled Five into a silent, supportive hug, reminding him we were here and alive now. All of my siblings had died three times now, myself four. That doesn’t just happen. That’s not some normal occurrence in the world, though that could be calqued up to several reasons. Still, the only time I’d heard of those sort of things was in novels, movies, and games, and typically, the one that dies frequently, only to be saved by the story’s hero, was the one who was the catalyst for the major event they were trying to prevent. Their death was necessary in order to save the world.

Oh, shit.

I tried my best to remain strong as I pushed away from my brother and reassured him. Nothing was a set fact, after all. There was nothing that could confirm that one of us had to do with the world constantly ending… except for the Commission’s entire philosophy. And the fact Vanya always seemed to set something off.

I mentally shook those thoughts away, choosing instead to focus back on the moment my family stood in. When Five and I made our way back to Sissy’s house, the sun had basically completely set, leaving us in darkness. That made it a little hard to spot everyone, given that somehow, all of us—with the exception of Five, of course—had opted to wear black. Still, I could spot Vanya sitting on the back steps, her legs curled up tight against her chest. She wore a solemn look, and the closer I got, I could spot the shimmers of tear tracks running down her cheeks. I couldn’t imagine the position she’d been put in, having to leave behind the woman she loved and a boy she’d come to think of as her own.

The longer I dwelled on it, the greater the hole in my heart began to ache, making it feel like I would never be able to exist without it. Lila and I hadn’t been perfect, and if viewed from some angles, it looked like we shouldn’t have tolerated each other for as long as we did, but I couldn’t help but love her. There were so many things the rest of the world never got to see about her, and I walked on with the hope that one day, I’d get to see them again… along with the rest of her, of course.

Vanya offered me whatever semblance of a smile she could muster as I sat beside her, waiting for Five to gather up everyone else. The moment our shoulders touched, I felt a reassurance that not all things would leave. At the very least, I’d always have my family with me.

I sighed as she leaned her head against my shoulder, prompting me to rest my cheek against her. Even though it took heartbreak to completely repair our bond, I was glad we’d finally gotten back to where we’d started from.

A few moments later, I heard a smattering of footsteps behind us, prompting me to turn around. Five marched toward Vanya and I with the rest of our siblings in tow, ready to go home. Smiling, I helped her up to her feet, and the two of us joined the circle. Five took a glance at the numbers on the case one last time, making sure they were all correct, then looked to the rest of us.

“Everyone ready?” We all nodded in response. Five was just about to hit the trigger, when Klaus slapped his hands on Luther and my shoulders, jarring me enough to catch everyone’s attentions.

“Wait!”

Everyone looked to Klaus with varying degrees of annoyance and confusion. We expected him to clarify, or at the very least, make some sort of statement, but he just stuck up a finger and rushed over to the deck, grabbing a black hat that somehow managed to stay put during the chaos.

“Fifty bucks if we leave him here,” Diego whispered to Five. I shot him a glare, putting the idea down immediately.

Klaus returned to us again and took my hands, beaming with pride at his find. I couldn’t help but laugh at how happy he appeared, and with that, we were finally ready. Everyone joined hands, and Allison and Diego tightly gripped Five’s shoulders, hoping that this time, we’d all end up in the same place at the same time. I didn’t want to go through what we just had _again_.

One small click, and blue lightning shot out from the case, enveloping us in light, so blinding that I had to shut my eyes.

It wasn’t until I felt solid ground beneath my feet that I finally dared to open them again, gasping at our surroundings. I’d never been so happy to see those dark railings looming above us, or the chandelier that was in oddly good shape, considering what happened the last time we were here. Most importantly, everything was intact. Nothing had exploded, burned up, or crumbled.

Everyone took a moment to compose themselves after that event, then finally started to look into this.

“Wh… what day is it?” I coughed, the air suddenly catching up to my lungs. Conveniently, a newspaper rested on the table in front of us, so Five snatched it up and took a glance at the date. Once he did, his eyes went wide.

“April 2, 2019,” he declared. “Day after the apocalypse.”

Overwhelmed with joy, I reached over and hugged Klaus tightly, then Luther. The world was in one piece, and we were _home_.

“Wait, so we stopped it,” Allison concluded, the joy of the realization starting to spread to her.

“My God, it’s over?” Vanya sighed, relieved.

“Did we… actually succeed at something?” Klaus cried. “That’s incredible!” Six of us laughed as Five took a glance around, making sure everything was as it should’ve been. “I don’t know about you guys, but I need a drink.”

“Oh, definitely,” I agreed. “Just not too much.” Klaus affectionately reached over and slung an arm over my shoulders, forcing us to walk in sync.

“You got it, sis.” I turned my attention over to Five.

“You coming?” He appeared taken aback as I extended the offer to him. “We just saved the world twice. I think _all_ of us have earned it. But same goes for you. I don’t want to have to drag around any drunk siblings, and you two are the most likely.”

All of us jovially made our way into the parlor, unbelievably relieved to be home. I immediately booked it for the bar with Klaus, trying to mix together something I figured I’d liked. I’d never been allowed to touch Dad’s collection before, nor had I dared, so this was exhilarating.

“Why is there a painting of Ben over the mantelpiece?”

Confused, I directed my attention to Diego, then slowly, to the portrait in question. I expected to still see Five there, but to my surprise, Diego was right. The picture had been replaced with none other than Ben himself, and I couldn’t be sure from a distance, but there was something weird about his uniform.

What in the hell?

“I knew you’d show up eventually.” 

My jaw dropped as I jumped, turning to face the source of the noise and spotting none other than the man of our nightmares himself. My brain began to function on auto pilot as I stepped back out from behind the bar, my eyes unable to remove themselves from Dad’s gaze.

“Dad,” Diego choked out, the first of us to find his voice again.

“You’re alive,” I whispered, unsure of how that was possible, and how I felt about that. Dad looked over all of us, his brows furrowing. 

“Why shouldn’t I be?” I quickly shook my head, trying to play along with this insanity.

“Yeah. Y-Yeah, you’re right. I’m… I’m just happy that we’re home, and… together again?” Dad’s confused expression only deepened, causing my stomach to lurch.

“’Home’?” His words were sharp. “This isn’t your home.”

I’m sorry, what? 

“What are you talking about?” Allison laughed, as deep in denial as the rest of us. “This is the Umbrella Academy.”

“Wrong again.” There was something almost gleeful about Dad as he corrected us. “This is the Sparrow Academy.”

Immediately, the rest of my siblings and I turned around, our attention diverted by the sound of footsteps. The light shining in behind them made it impossible to distinguish their faces, but up on the balcony stood five silhouettes of people, and… a green cube?

What kind of sick joke was this? Was this Dad’s way of getting back at us for the way we acted when we met him at the dinner? That had to be it. Granted, Dad had never been the sort, but there’s no time like the present.

My entire body felt like it was about to collapse as the final one of the people before us stepped forward, this one close enough to give us a good look. How… how could Ben have been standing in front of us?

But upon closer inspection, that wasn’t the Ben we knew. For starters, his uniform was red, which made absolutely no sense, and were those… blue streaks in his completely unkempt hair? Not to mention the prominent scar running down the left side of his face, which eventually disappeared into stubble.

“Dad, who the hell are these assholes?” he growled, glaring at us with caution and hatred.

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Caught up in everything, my family’s seven minds could only muster out one word, spoken at the exact same time.

“Shit.”

**_To Be Continued in “You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 3”_ **


End file.
